The Sony World Photography Awards winners were announced at a ceremony in London on 19th April.

Taking home the coveted Photographer of the Year title was British photographer Alys Tomlinson, for her series Ex-Voto, winning the photographer US$25,000. The jury praised the work for its beautiful production, technical excellence and sensitive illustration of pilgrimage as a journey of discovery and sacrifice to a greater power.

Tomlinson’s series was selected from the 10 category winners of the Professional competition, the winners of which were also announced at the same time. The overall winners of the Open (best single image) competition, along with the Youth and Student Focus competitions were also revealed.

All winners were invited to attend the ceremony in London and took home Sony digital imaging equipment. They will have their work published in the winners’ book, while their work will be shown as part of the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition at Somerset House, London.

Recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography award, Candida Höfer was also at the ceremony to collect her prize.

Organised by the World Photography Organisation, the Sony World Photography Awards is generally considered to be one of the world’s most diverse photography competition. This year, the 11th edition, saw a record breaking 320,000 submissions by photographers from more than 200 countries and territories.

Alys Tomlinson’s project, Ex Voto, for which she won Photographer of the Year, is a personal project for the London-based photographer. The winning work encompasses formal portraiture, large format landscape and small, detailed still-life images of the ‘ex-votos’ (offerings of religious devotion) found at pilgrimage sites of Loudes (France), Ballyvourney (ireland) and Grabarka (Poland).

The winner of the Open Photographer of the Year award is Veselin Atanasov, from Bulgaria. Selected from 10 category winners as the best single image in the world, the photograph “Early Autumn” receives a $5,000 prize. The photograph depicts autumn in the Central Balkan National Park. The individual Open category winners were announced in March.

Professional category winners are as follows:

  • Architecture: Gianmaria Gava, Italian withBuildings / 2nd Edgar Martins, Portuguese / 3rd Corentin Fohlen, French
  • Contemporary Issues: Fredrik Lerneryd, Swedish with Slum Ballet / 2nd Margaret Mitchell, British / 3rd Alfio Tommasini, Swiss
  • Creative: Florian Ruiz, French with The White Contamination / 2nd Patricia Kühfuss, German / 3rd Eduardo Castaldo, Italian
  • Current Affairs & News: Mohd Samsul Mohd Said, Malaysian with Life Inside the Refugee Camp / 2nd Luis Henry Agudelo Cano, Colombian / 3rd Rasmus Flindt Pedersen, Danish
  • Discovery: Alys Tomlinson, British with Ex-Voto / 2nd Antonio Gibotta, Italian / 3rd Maria Petrenko, Ukrainian
  • Landscape: Luca Locatelli, Italian with White Gold / 2nd Rohan Reilly, Irish / 3rd Tomasz Padlo, Polish
  • Natural World & Wildlife: Roselena Ramistella, Italian with Deep Land / 2nd Mitch Dobrowner, American / 3rd Wiebke Haas, German
  • Portraiture: Tom Oldham, British with The Last of The Crooners / 2nd Anush Babajanyan, Armenian / 3rd Andrew Quilty, Australian
  • Sport: Balazs Gardi, Hungarian with Buzkashi / 2nd Behnam Sahvi, Iranian/ 3rd Matteo Armellini, Italian
  • Still Life: Edgar Martins, Portuguese withSiloquies and Soliloquies on Death, Life and Other Interludes / 2nd place Tristan Spinski, American / 3rd Werner Anderson, Norwegian

Youth Photographer of the Year was awarded to Megan Johnson, a 16-year-old American photographer, for her image Still. Student Photographer of the Year was awarded to Canadian photographer Samuel Bolduc, for her series The Burden. For his work, he wins €30,000 worth of Sony photography equipment for his institution, the College de Matane.

Winners and shortlisted images can be seen at the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition at Somerset House in London, until 6th May. The 2019 Sony World Photography Awards opens for entries on the 1st June, 2018. To see the full list of finalists and winners from the competition, visit worldphoto.org