Latest news with #ZedNelson
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The photographer who took on America's gun nuts: ‘I'd get death threats in the night'
'I was lucky,' says the photographer Zed Nelson, 'until I went to Afghanistan.' The 57-year-old, who has just won the Sony World Photographer of the Year award for The Anthropocene Illusion, his masterful 2024 series about our relationship to the natural world, is making us tea in his north London kitchen and talking about his early years as a documentary photographer. 'I was very drawn towards… I don't want to say 'extreme situations', but they were highly political – life or death. Often there was a kind of geopolitical storyline behind it, like the Cold War and how countries are used as proxies.' Nelson began his career as a freelance photographer in 1990, working for the Independent, the Observer, Arena and The Face (as well as, later, The Telegraph Magazine). His work often took him into situations fraught with danger, where 'there's no police, no regular army, just warring factions… When you're younger, you have more idealism, you have more naïveté. You also have more ego, and a sense that nothing bad can happen to you.' He shot stories in Cambodia, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Africa and other flash-points and war zones. He recalls how his front-page images of famine in Somalia in 1992 for the Independent brought television reporters to the region; how The Face featured his photograph of a boy soldier in Angola wearing a colourful football shirt and holding a wad of cash. On the other hand, Nelson contracted dengue fever in French Guiana, and malaria in Angola, where he broke two teeth when he passed out from the effects of the disease. Things came to a head in Kabul in 1994. 'It was after the Soviets had been forced out [in 1989], and it was just Mujahideen warlords fighting. I went to Afghanistan to do a story about this forgotten war that just wouldn't end. It was also about Médecins Sans Frontières, who were the last aid agency there. All the others had left. 'And then I was in a car that got ambushed. We turned a corner, and the car was machine-gunned to pieces by two groups. I had an interpreter who got shot through the neck. The bullet sort of lodged in his face, but he survived. And the journalist I was with put his hands up over his head and had his arms kind of shot out. The bones were fragmented. He had to have skin grafts and nerve grafts, have his arms rebuilt. I didn't get hit, but at that moment, when people are screaming, and there's blood everywhere, and bullets are literally puncturing the car, my feeling was, 'I want to go home now'. It's not like a Hollywood movie. It was just like, 'Please can it stop? Can I go?'' The injured journalist was the future founder of Wallpaper magazine, Tyler Brûlé, who would come up with the idea for the publication while recovering in a hospital bed. Nelson would change direction, too, taking on a project in the US, from where, he notes, many of the weapons came. 'I'd seen that the guns were [mostly] Russian Kalashnikovs or American M-16s – that was true in El Salvador, in Angola, Afghanistan. Again, it was the proxy thing. Both Russia and America wanted to control these countries. And I thought: I'm not going to photograph Africa in grainy black-and-white any more. I'll photograph America, and their massive gun industry and the results of having guns in that society – 30,000 people shot and killed every year.' (Things have only got worse: in 2023, the figure was nearly 47,000.) The series of photographs he shot became the 1999 book Gun Nation, which was featured in 24 magazines worldwide. Among its most startling images were a portrait of a couple honeymooning at a desert shooting range, and a father holding his baby with one hand and a semi-automatic pistol in the other. There were also photographs from the aftermath of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado, where 12 children and a teacher were killed by two students in a pre-planned massacre. 'People were reeling,' Nelson recalls, 'and everyone was like, 'pray for healing'. 'We thought we were in the safest place in America' was always the mantra. But down the road was the gun shop, and you're like, 'You don't need to pray for healing. You just need to sort that out'.' The book brought hostility to Nelson's door. After appearing on US radio stations publicising his work, he began receiving death threats at home in London. 'It'd be the middle of the night, I'd pick up the phone, and it'd be like, 'You f---ing a--hole, I'm gonna hunt you down.' It was not funny. It probably was just some t--- being an idiot, but it was enough to make me ring the police.' Since then, Nelson has worked on a string of thought-provoking long-term projects, from his 2009 book and film Love Me, about the pervasiveness of Western beauty ideals, to his 2019 film The Street – four years in the making – about the effects of gentrification on a single street in east London. Finally, The Anthropocene Illusion will bring him the stardom he deserves, though he plays it down: 'When you work on these projects for a long time, you question if it's going to work. It's very time-consuming and expensive. So it's massively gratifying to get the award, because it makes it feel worthwhile.' In this series, which he began six years ago, he turns his gift for storytelling to the way our craving for connection with nature – even as we cause its vanishing – leads to us recreating it in illusory form in zoos, theme parks and museums, as well as garden cities, national parks and wildlife reserves. Each image contains a narrative that sets the mind whirring. In Singapore, for instance, luxuriant greenery transforms the façade of a hotel, yet as Nelson points out, 'irrigating the plants breeds mosquitoes. So they have to kill all the insects. And when you do that, you kill the birds as well. So in order to have a beautiful, natural-looking city, they have to make it entirely unnatural.' One photograph of a chimpanzee sitting on a man-made rock in Shanghai Wild Animal Park, China, encapsulates the way that the fake and the real intertwine. The walls are painted with exotic scenes of a lake surrounded by plant life, which, Nelson notes, are purely for the zoo's visitors; they don't conjure a natural environment for the animal. 'Then there's the hatch, the door,' he adds. 'Which begs the thought: where does it go? 'And of course, it's not onto the plains of Africa. It opens into a barred cage where the chimpanzee sleeps.' Nelson saw the possibility of this melancholy image when he first arrived at the park, but it took the chimpanzee 'a day and a half' to return to its pose. The waiting forced a new perspective on him. 'Zoos are designed for a kind of conveyor belt of humanity. But when you disrupt that, you see the cruelty, the boredom, the confusion of the animal, and the frustration of a creature in confinement. After two days, you also start sharing some of its feelings.' Other striking images stir the imagination. In Kenya, an Out of Africa champagne-picnic experience laid out in the Maasai Mara reserve conjures a romantic vision of colonial times for high-value tourists – 'and a Maasai warrior is also paid to be in the scene, to give it this added twist of 'authenticity'. Make of it what you will, but it's all just one big fantasy.' Nelson was born in Africa himself, in Uganda, in 1967. His first name is actually Zik, after the popular 1960s Nigerian president Nnamdi Azikiwe. He adopted 'Zed' after a picture editor mistook his suggestion that he credit him simply as 'Z Nelson'. His parents were journalists, who had left the UK in their early 20s for the east African state. 'My dad ended up editing a newspaper there, then that became a problem, because any kind of free press under Idi Amin was a problem.' (The Ugandan army general seized power in a 1971 coup and would preside over a murderous dictatorship for the next eight years.) At one point, Nelson's father was dragged away in the night. 'I've asked my mother about it. There were soldiers on the roof and coming through the front door, and my mum was screaming, 'Don't take my babies'. It was terrifying for her. God knows what my dad thought. He plays everything down.' Nelson's father was released. But the family decided to leave Uganda and return to the UK with four-year-old Zik and his elder sister. It wasn't the end of their wanderings. 'When I was eight, they decided to drive overland to India in a converted ambulance… We literally set off from our house, and it took a year to get there and back.' He would also spend a couple of years at an international school in Hong Kong, before being sent to 'the worst comprehensive in London. It wasn't like Ofsted 'must do better', it was people being stabbed and parents not being told. There were hardly any exams done by anyone. My horizon line was massively lowered by the experience, but luckily, I still had an early background of a much bigger picture of the world.' After 'a couple of lost years', Nelson went back to college to get the qualifications needed to pursue higher education, where he studied film-making and photography. He soon realised that he could push forward more quickly with the latter. He still shoots on film. 'Digital cameras are great… but everything's so easy and quick that you don't look at things properly, or sit with things long enough.' He will admit, though, that one shot he took with his iPhone in Oslo's Natural History Museum as a reference for The Anthropocene Illusion was so amazing that it forced him to extend his trip so that he could try to reproduce it on his medium-format camera. Nelson finds it 'very worrying' that AI could accelerate the vogue for retouched and modified images – not to mention wholly AI-generated photos. He thinks it may reach the point at which 'the sense of wonder and appreciation people have for photographs is eroded because no one really believes in anything. 'If you're a photographer who takes pictures for product shots or advertising or even fashion, you know AI is coming for you,' he says. His hope is that the 'real' becomes something we learn to hold on to tightly. 'There's something about photography,' he muses. 'It's the joy of seeing something and thinking, 'Wow, that existed, that happened'. And if you take those feelings away, you're left with this Orwellian society where we trust and believe in nothing.' The Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition 2025 is at Somerset House, London WC2 ( until May 5. The Anthropocene Illusion by Zed Nelson (Guest Editions, £40) will be published next month Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
19-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The photographer who took on America's gun nuts: ‘I'd get death threats in the night'
'I was lucky,' says the photographer Zed Nelson, 'until I went to Afghanistan.' The 57-year-old, who has just won the Sony World Photographer of the Year award for The Anthropocene Illusion, his masterful 2024 series about our relationship to the natural world, is making us tea in his north London kitchen and talking about his early years as a documentary photographer. 'I was very drawn towards… I don't want to say 'extreme situations', but they were highly political – life or death. Often there was a kind of geopolitical storyline behind it, like the Cold War and how countries are used as proxies.' Nelson began his career as a freelance photographer in 1990, working for the Independent, the Observer, Arena and The Face (as well as, later, The Telegraph Magazine). His work often took him into situations fraught with danger, where 'there's no police, no regular army, just warring factions… When you're younger, you have more idealism, you have more naïveté. You also have more ego, and a sense that nothing bad can happen to you.' He shot stories in Cambodia, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Africa and other flash-points and war zones. He recalls how his front-page images of famine in Somalia in 1992 for the Independent brought television reporters to the region; how The Face featured his photograph of a boy soldier in Angola wearing a colourful football shirt and holding a wad of cash. On the other hand, Nelson contracted dengue fever in French Guiana, and malaria in Angola, where he broke two teeth when he passed out from the effects of the disease. Things came to a head in Kabul in 1994. 'It was after the Soviets had been forced out [in 1989], and it was just Mujahideen warlords fighting. I went to Afghanistan to do a story about this forgotten war that just wouldn't end. It was also about Médecins Sans Frontières, who were the last aid agency there. All the others had left. 'And then I was in a car that got ambushed. We turned a corner, and the car was machine-gunned to pieces by two groups. I had an interpreter who got shot through the neck. The bullet sort of lodged in his face, but he survived. And the journalist I was with put his hands up over his head and had his arms kind of shot out. The bones were fragmented. He had to have skin grafts and nerve grafts, have his arms rebuilt. I didn't get hit, but at that moment, when people are screaming, and there's blood everywhere, and bullets are literally puncturing the car, my feeling was, 'I want to go home now'. It's not like a Hollywood movie. It was just like, 'Please can it stop? Can I go?'' The injured journalist was the future founder of Wallpaper magazine, Tyler Brûlé, who would come up with the idea for the publication while recovering in a hospital bed. Nelson would change direction, too, taking on a project in the US, from where, he notes, many of the weapons came. 'I'd seen that the guns were [mostly] Russian Kalashnikovs or American M-16s – that was true in El Salvador, in Angola, Afghanistan. Again, it was the proxy thing. Both Russia and America wanted to control these countries. And I thought: I'm not going to photograph Africa in grainy black-and-white any more. I'll photograph America, and their massive gun industry and the results of having guns in that society – 30,000 people shot and killed every year.' (Things have only got worse: in 2023, the figure was nearly 47,000.) The series of photographs he shot became the 1999 book Gun Nation, which was featured in 24 magazines worldwide. Among its most startling images were a portrait of a couple honeymooning at a desert shooting range, and a father holding his baby with one hand and a semi-automatic pistol in the other. There were also photographs from the aftermath of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado, where 12 children and a teacher were killed by two students in a pre-planned massacre. 'People were reeling,' Nelson recalls, 'and everyone was like, 'pray for healing'. 'We thought we were in the safest place in America' was always the mantra. But down the road was the gun shop, and you're like, 'You don't need to pray for healing. You just need to sort that out'.' The book brought hostility to Nelson's door. After appearing on US radio stations publicising his work, he began receiving death threats at home in London. 'It'd be the middle of the night, I'd pick up the phone, and it'd be like, 'You f---ing a--hole, I'm gonna hunt you down.' It was not funny. It probably was just some t--- being an idiot, but it was enough to make me ring the police.' Since then, Nelson has worked on a string of thought-provoking long-term projects, from his 2009 book and film Love Me, about the pervasiveness of Western beauty ideals, to his 2019 film The Street – four years in the making – about the effects of gentrification on a single street in east London. Finally, The Anthropocene Illusion will bring him the stardom he deserves, though he plays it down: 'When you work on these projects for a long time, you question if it's going to work. It's very time-consuming and expensive. So it's massively gratifying to get the award, because it makes it feel worthwhile.' In this series, which he began six years ago, he turns his gift for storytelling to the way our craving for connection with nature – even as we cause its vanishing – leads to us recreating it in illusory form in zoos, theme parks and museums, as well as garden cities, national parks and wildlife reserves. Each image contains a narrative that sets the mind whirring. In Singapore, for instance, luxuriant greenery transforms the façade of a hotel, yet as Nelson points out, 'irrigating the plants breeds mosquitoes. So they have to kill all the insects. And when you do that, you kill the birds as well. So in order to have a beautiful, natural-looking city, they have to make it entirely unnatural.' One photograph of a chimpanzee sitting on a man-made rock in Shanghai Wild Animal Park, China, encapsulates the way that the fake and the real intertwine. The walls are painted with exotic scenes of a lake surrounded by plant life, which, Nelson notes, are purely for the zoo's visitors; they don't conjure a natural environment for the animal. 'Then there's the hatch, the door,' he adds. 'Which begs the thought: where does it go? 'And of course, it's not onto the plains of Africa. It opens into a barred cage where the chimpanzee sleeps.' Nelson saw the possibility of this melancholy image when he first arrived at the park, but it took the chimpanzee 'a day and a half' to return to its pose. The waiting forced a new perspective on him. 'Zoos are designed for a kind of conveyor belt of humanity. But when you disrupt that, you see the cruelty, the boredom, the confusion of the animal, and the frustration of a creature in confinement. After two days, you also start sharing some of its feelings.' Other striking images stir the imagination. In Kenya, an Out of Africa champagne-picnic experience laid out in the Maasai Mara reserve conjures a romantic vision of colonial times for high-value tourists – 'and a Maasai warrior is also paid to be in the scene, to give it this added twist of 'authenticity'. Make of it what you will, but it's all just one big fantasy.' Nelson was born in Africa himself, in Uganda, in 1967. His first name is actually Zik, after the popular 1960s Nigerian president Nnamdi Azikiwe. He adopted 'Zed' after a picture editor mistook his suggestion that he credit him simply as 'Z Nelson'. His parents were journalists, who had left the UK in their early 20s for the east African state. 'My dad ended up editing a newspaper there, then that became a problem, because any kind of free press under Idi Amin was a problem.' (The Ugandan army general seized power in a 1971 coup and would preside over a murderous dictatorship for the next eight years.) At one point, Nelson's father was dragged away in the night. 'I've asked my mother about it. There were soldiers on the roof and coming through the front door, and my mum was screaming, 'Don't take my babies'. It was terrifying for her. God knows what my dad thought. He plays everything down.' Nelson's father was released. But the family decided to leave Uganda and return to the UK with four-year-old Zik and his elder sister. It wasn't the end of their wanderings. 'When I was eight, they decided to drive overland to India in a converted ambulance… We literally set off from our house, and it took a year to get there and back.' He would also spend a couple of years at an international school in Hong Kong, before being sent to 'the worst comprehensive in London. It wasn't like Ofsted 'must do better', it was people being stabbed and parents not being told. There were hardly any exams done by anyone. My horizon line was massively lowered by the experience, but luckily, I still had an early background of a much bigger picture of the world.' After 'a couple of lost years', Nelson went back to college to get the qualifications needed to pursue higher education, where he studied film-making and photography. He soon realised that he could push forward more quickly with the latter. He still shoots on film. 'Digital cameras are great… but everything's so easy and quick that you don't look at things properly, or sit with things long enough.' He will admit, though, that one shot he took with his iPhone in Oslo's Natural History Museum as a reference for The Anthropocene Illusion was so amazing that it forced him to extend his trip so that he could try to reproduce it on his medium-format camera. Nelson finds it 'very worrying' that AI could accelerate the vogue for retouched and modified images – not to mention wholly AI-generated photos. He thinks it may reach the point at which 'the sense of wonder and appreciation people have for photographs is eroded because no one really believes in anything. 'If you're a photographer who takes pictures for product shots or advertising or even fashion, you know AI is coming for you,' he says. His hope is that the 'real' becomes something we learn to hold on to tightly. 'There's something about photography,' he muses. 'It's the joy of seeing something and thinking, 'Wow, that existed, that happened'. And if you take those feelings away, you're left with this Orwellian society where we trust and believe in nothing.'
Mid East Info
18-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Mid East Info
Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Overall Winners - Middle East Business News and Information
The Overall Winners of the Sony World Photography Awards 2025 were announced tonight at a special gala ceremony in London Zed Nelson receives prestigious Photographer of the Year title Susan Meiselas honoured as the 2025 Outstanding Contribution to Photography 10 Professional category winners additionally announced Exhibition opens at London's Somerset House from 17 April – 5 May (Dubai, United Arab Emirates,17 April 2025) – The Sony World Photography Awards announced today the overall winners of its 18th edition at a special gala ceremony in London, bringing together leading figures in the industry to honour this year's winners and their achievements. The prestigious Photographer of the Year 2025 title was awarded to the acclaimed British photographer Zed Nelson for the series The Anthropocene Illusion. Nelson receives a $25,000 (USD) cash prize, a range of Sony digital imaging equipment, and the opportunity to present an additional body of work at the Sony World Photography Awards 2026 exhibition. Nelson was selected from the 10 Professional competition category winners, who were announced at today's ceremony, alongside the 2nd and 3rd place finalists in each category. The evening's programme additionally recognised the overall winners of the Awards' Open, Student and Youth competitions. Also honoured during the course of the evening was this year's Outstanding Contribution to Photography recipient, the acclaimed documentary photographer Susan Meiselas. Over almost two decades, the Awards have become a definitive annual moment for the discovery and celebration of contemporary photography. Each year the Awards celebrate the stories and images that shape our visual language and capture the imagination, offering a global perspective on this ever-evolving medium. The Sony World Photography Awards 2025 exhibition is on display at Somerset House, London from 17 April – 5 May, presenting over 300 prints and hundreds of images in digital displays, as well as a special presentation by Susan Meiselas. PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR The Anthropocene Illusion is a long-term documentary project, spanning six years and four continents, which explores the deeply fractured relationship between humans and the natural world. Taking the concept of the 'Anthropocene', a term for the current period in Earth's history which is characterised by humans being the dominant influence on the environment, Nelson's series focuses on humanity's response to its impact on the planet. The project looks at artificial spaces, created by humans as a means to 'experience' and interact with nature, from safari parks, nature reserves and resorts, to natural history museums, zoos and green cities. Nelson uses these constructions as a lens through which to explore the dissonance between the human desire to stay connected to nature, and the continuous environmental destruction caused by human activity. Commenting on Zed Nelson's winning project, Monica Allende, Chair of the 2025 Professional jury says: ' The jury applauded Nelson's urgent topic and his ability to translate complex environmental issues into striking visual narratives. The Anthropocene Illusion illustrates a world where the boundaries between the real and the artificial blur, where the wild survives in controlled enclosures, and where human nostalgia for nature is expressed through spectacle rather than action. Nelson's work compels viewers to question their own role in this paradox and consider the consequences of a society increasingly distanced from the natural world. This timely body of work tells one of the most important stories of our age, and is now more critical than ever.' PROFESSIONAL CATEGORY WINNERS The winning series in the 2025 Professional competition have been selected by a panel of expert judges. Each of the winning photographers displays an original approach to narrative and exceptional technical ability. As part of their prize this year, for the first time the Professional category winners were invited to attend Insights, a day of specialised sessions with industry experts in London. Drawn from leading institutional and commercial photography spaces, the expert speakers offered the winners their insights on ways to continue expanding their platforms and growing their reach. All of the category winners additionally receive Sony digital imaging equipment. To learn more about this year's Professional winners and finalists, please visit This year's winners are: ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN WINNER: Ulana Switucha (Canada) for The Tokyo Toilet Project Finalists: 2nd place Andre Tezza (Brazil); 3rd place Owen Davies (United Kingdom) CREATIVE WINNER: Rhiannon Adam (United Kingdom) for Rhi-Entry Finalists: 2nd place Irina Shkoda (Ukraine); 3rd place Julio Etchart & Holly Birtles (United Kingdom) DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS WINNER: Toby Binder (Germany) for Divided Youth of Belfast Finalists: 2nd place Florence Goupil (Peru); 3rd place Alex Bex (France) ENVIRONMENT WINNER: Nicolás Garrido Huguet (Peru) for Alquimia Textil Finalists: 2nd place Maria Portaluppi (Ecuador); 3rd place Cristóbal Olivares (Chile) LANDSCAPE WINNER: Seido Kino (Japan) for The Strata of Time Finalists: 2nd place Lalo de Almeida (Brazil), 3rd place Mischa Lluch (Spain) PERSPECTIVES WINNER: Laura Pannack (United Kingdom) for The Journey Home from School Finalists: 2nd place Giovanni Capriotti (Italy); 3rd place Valentin Valette (France) PORTRAITURE WINNER: Gui Christ (Brazil) for M'kumba Finalists: 2nd place Raúl Belinchón (Spain); 3rd place Tom Franks (United Kingdom) SPORT WINNER: Chantal Pinzi (Italy) for Shred the Patriarchy Finalists: 2nd place Michael Dunn (Bolivia); 3rd place Antonio López Díaz (Spain) STILL LIFE WINNER: Peter Franck (Germany) for Still Waiting Finalists: 2nd place KM Asad (Bangladesh); 3rd place Alessandro Gandolfi (Italy) WILDLIFE & NATURE WINNER: Zed Nelson (United Kingdom) for The Anthropocene Illusion Finalists: 2nd place Pascal Beaudenon (France); 3rd place Kevin Shi (United States) OPEN PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR The Open competition celebrates the power and dynamism of a single photograph. Winning photographs are selected for their ability to distil a singular moment and evoke a broader narrative. The Open Photographer of the Year 2025 is Olivier Unia (France), who receives a $5000 (USD) cash prize and Sony digital imaging equipment. Olivier Unia was chosen from the 10 Open category winners for his photograph Tbourida La Chute, which captures the danger and excitement of the moment a rider is thrown from their mount during a tbourida , a traditional Moroccan equestrian performance. Commenting on his win, Olivier Unia says: 'I'm very proud to be the Open Photographer of the Year in this major competition. It gives me the confidence to continue to share my work. I entered Tbourida La Chute , one of the photographs from a project I've been working on for the past two years about the Moroccan equestrian art form of tbourida , and I am pleased to see this image recognised.' STUDENT PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR The brief for this year's Student competition was In the Beginning. Students of photography from leading institutions across the world were invited to enter a series documenting the beginning stages of a story. The Student Photographer of the Year 2025 is Micaela Valdivia Medina (Peru), from the Instituto Profesional Arcos in Chile. Micaela Valdivia Medina's project, The Last Day We Saw the Mountains and the Sea, focuses on female prison spaces across Chile, and the dynamics that shape the lives of incarcerated women and their families. Commenting on her win, Micaela Valdivia Medina says: 'To be a winner in the Sony World Photography Awards is very important to me, but also to all the women I worked with for this project. To talk about and photograph prison spaces is never easy, but it is necessary to keep making and sharing these images. As a student, I appreciate this opportunity and recognition. At this time when photography and arts education is in decline, I think it's important that students, teachers and professional photographers unite to protect it.' YOUTH PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR For the 2025 Youth competition, photographers aged 19 and under were invited to respond to an Open Call and enter their best images from the last year. The Youth Photographer of the Year 2025, chosen from a shortlist of 11 photographers, is Daniel Dian-Ji Wu (Taiwan, 16 years old) for his arresting image of a skateboarder doing a trick, silhouetted against a sunset in Venice Beach, Los Angeles. Commenting on his win, Daniel Dian-Ji Wu says: 'It's an incredible honour to be named Youth Photographer of the Year. I feel beyond excited and grateful. Photography has been a huge part of my life for the past seven years, so this means so much to me—not just as recognition, but as a reminder of why I love what I do. It opens doors to new opportunities and connections, which makes the journey ahead even more meaningful. I'm really thankful to the Sony World Photography Awards for selecting me and can't wait to see what's next.' OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO PHOTOGRAPHY The prestigious Outstanding Contribution to Photography 2025 is awarded to acclaimed documentary photographer Susan Meiselas. Known for her collaborative approach to portraiture, and for shedding light on lesser-known narratives, Meiselas' work has been instrumental in shaping contemporary documentary practices, and the conversation around participation in photography. More than 60 images by Meiselas, including excerpts from some of her landmark series, are on view at Somerset House as part of the Sony World Photography Awards exhibition, showing some of the key themes and narrative trajectories of the past five decades of her practice. PROFESSIONAL COMPETITION CATEGORY WINNERS AND SHORTLIST ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN Category Winner Ulana Switucha, Canada 2nd Place Andre Tezza, Brazil 3rd Place Owen Davies, United Kingdom Shortlist Alejandro Fernández-Llamazares Vidal, Spain Maciej Leszczynski, Poland Márton Mogyorósy, Hungary Miku Yokoyama, Japan Peter Franck, Germany Yu Ting Lei, China Mainland CREATIVE Category Winner Rhiannon Adam, United Kingdom 2nd Place Irina Shkoda, Ukraine 3rd Place Julio Etchart & Holly Birtles, United Kingdom Shortlist Alice Poyzer, United Kingdom Carolina Krieger, Brazil Giorgia Lisi, Italy Mariana Greif, Uruguay Valentina Fusco, Italy Yinna Higuera, Colombia DOCUMENTARY PROJECTS Category Winner Toby Binder, Germany 2nd Place Florence Goupil, Peru 3rd Place Alex Bex, France Shortlist Alessandro Grassani, Italy Alfredo Bosco, Italy Caroline Gutman, United States Da Yang, China Mainland Giovanni de Mojana, Italy Jodi Windvogel, South Africa Noriko Hayashi, Japan ENVIRONMENT Category Winner Nicolás Garrido Huguet, Peru 2nd Place Maria Portaluppi, Ecuador 3rd Place Cristóbal Olivares, Chile Shortlist Daniele Vita, Italy Kasia Strek, Poland Matteo Bastianelli, Italy Per-Anders Pettersson, Sweden Shunta Kimura, Japan Skander Khlif, Tunisia LANDSCAPE Category Winner Seido Kino, Japan 2nd Place Lalo de Almeida, Brazil 3rd Place Mischa Lluch, Spain Shortlist Dudu Roth, Israel Francisco Gonzalez Camacho, Spain Gunnar Knechtel, Germany Javi Parejo, Spain Kazuaki Koseki, Japan Lorenzo Poli, Italy Masood Talebi, Islamic Republic of Iran PERSPECTIVES Category Winner Laura Pannack, United Kingdom 2nd Place Giovanni Capriotti, Italy 3rd Place Valentin Valette, France Shortlist Bárbara Monteiro, Portugal Carlos Folgoso Sueiro, Spain Jed Bacason, Philippines Lea Greub, Germany Lina Czerny, Germany Lorraine Turci, France Mauricio Holc, Argentina PORTRAITURE Category winner Gui Christ, Brazil 2nd Place Raúl Belinchón, Spain 3rd Place Tom Franks, United Kingdom Shortlist Alena Grom, Ukraine Cletus Nelson Nwadike, Sweden Constance Jaeggi O'Connor, Switzerland Ivan Ryaskov, Kazakhstan Jean-Marc Caimi & Valentina Piccinni, Italy Niccolò Rastrelli, Italy Stas Ginzburg, United States WILDLIFE & NATURE Photographer of the Year Zed Nelson, United Kingdom 2nd Place Pascal Beaudenon, France 3rd Place Kevin Shi, United States Shortlist Amit Eshel, Israel Brent Stirton, South Africa Efrain Sueldo, United States James Wylie, United Kingdom Marielle van Uitert, Netherlands Melina Schildberg, Germany Thomas Nicolon, France SPORT Category Winner Chantal Pinzi, Italy 2nd Place Michael Dunn, Bolivia 3rd Place Antonio López Díaz, Spain Shortlist Matthew Joseph, United Kingdom Mihaela Ivanova, Bulgaria Robin Tutenges, France Svenja Wiese, Germany Tanara Stuermer, Brazil STILL LIFE Category Winner Peter Franck, Germany 2nd Place K M Asad, Bangladesh 3rd Place Alessandro Gandolfi, Italy Shortlist Amanda Harman, United Kingdom Elaine Duigenan, United Kingdom Li Sun, China Mainland Miriam Bräutigam, Germany Oded Wagenstein, Israel Rui Caria, Portugal Shinya Masuda, Japan OPEN COMPETITION CATEGORY WINNERS AND SHORTLIST ARCHITECTURE Winner Xuecheng Liu, China Mainland Shortlist Alessio D'Addato, Italy Andrew Newman, United Kingdom David Eliud Gil Samaniego Maldonado, Mexico Hans Wichmann, Germany Jason Smith, Australia Max van Son, Netherlands Michael Echteld, Netherlands Michael Echteld, Netherlands Pati John, Netherlands Radek Pohnán, Czechia Robert Fülöp, Romania Thibault Drutel, France Ute-Christa Scherhag, Germany CREATIVE Winner Jonell Francisco, Philippines Shortlist Ana Leal, Brazil Ana Peiró Muñoz, United Kingdom Enda Burke, Ireland Hardijanto Budyman, Indonesia Ian Knaggs, United Kingdom Marina Tsaregorodtseva, United Kingdom Mobolaji Ogunrosoye, Nigeria Rachel Nixon, Canada Vida Khani, Islamic Republic Of Iran Yijing Yang, China Mainland LANDSCAPE Winner Ng Guang Ze, Singapore Shortlist Dan Liao, China Mainland Francisco Negroni, Chile KunPeng Zhu, China Mainland Marcin Zajac, Poland Martin Stranka, Czechia Patrick Ems, Switzerland Timo Zilz, Germany Victor De Valles Ibañez, Spain Vilhelm Gunnarsson, Iceland Witold Ziomek, Poland Xiaoying Shi, China Mainland Yoshiaki Kudo, Japan Zhu Yang, China Mainland LIFESTYLE Winner Hajime Hirano, Japan Shortlist Barry Mayes, United Kingdom Emma Rogers, New Zealand Enamur Reza, Bangladesh Kathryn Mussallem, Canada Kevin Molano, Colombia Lucero Mora Ardila, Mexico Maira Ray, Brazil Scott Seager, United States Syed Mahabubul Kader, Bangladesh Wan Yong Chong, Malaysia Yaping Du, China Mainland Yevhen Kostiuk, Ukraine Zhang Xun, China Mainland MOTION Open Photographer of the Year Olivier Unia, France Shortlist Ahmed Abdallah, Egypt Alex Halloway, United States Antonio Flores García, Mexico Cristopher Rogel Blanquet Chavez, Mexico Eduardo Schneider, United States Hao Guo, China Mainland Joe Wakefield, United Kingdom Leo Huang, Taiwan Nick Alston, United Kingdom Sergey Geller, United States Swee Choo Oh, Malaysia Tim Jenka, Switzerland Tuan Nguyen Tan, Vietnam Wan Yong Chong, Malaysia NATURAL WORLD & WILDLIFE Winner Estebane Rezkallah, France Shortlist Anirban Dutta, India Christopher Baker, United States Daniel Hannabuss, United Kingdom Gianni Maitan, Italy Hasan Bağlar, Cyprus Hira Punjabi, India Ilena Fasci, Italy Jake Virus, United States Klára Zamouřilová, Czechia Martin Steenhaut, Belgium Mohammad Anisur Rahman, Bangladesh Pedro Jarque Krebs, Peru Peter Delaney, Ireland Tara Keane, Ireland OBJECT Winner Sussi Charlotte Alminde, Denmark Shortlist Angelo Brancaccio, Italy Carol Santiago, Mexico Edyta Kopcio, Poland Fabi Bick, Germany Ieva Gailė, Lithuania Muhammad Amdad Hossain, Bangladesh Natalia Hresko, Ukraine Oliver Lahrem, Germany Petia Angelova, Bulgaria Rajeev Gaikwad, India Rakibul Alam Khan, Bangladesh Ralf Hanisch, Germany Robert Bolton, United Kingdom Yuting Li, China Mainland PORTRAITURE Winner Yeintze Boutamba, Gabon Shortlist Adolphe Maillot, France Elena Subach, Ukraine Emmanuel Lucky, Nigeria Ivana Dostálová, Czechia Mark Harrison, United Kingdom Mark Harrison, United Kingdom Matthieu Quatravaux, France Panagiotis Rontos, Greece Piotr Skubisz, Poland Robbie Murrie, United Kingdom Svetlana Jovanovic, Netherlands STREET PHOTOGRAPHY Winner Khairizal Maris, Indonesia Shortlist Angela Magalhães, Portugal Francisco Mira Vicent, Spain Gavin Bragdon, United States Kathryn Mussallem, Canada Manex Sungahid, Philippines Nina Papiorek, Germany Osvaldo Torres Reyes, Mexico Pranto Chakraborty, Bangladesh Samuel Terry, United Kingdom Sean Lim Choon Hean, Malaysia Seyed Ali Hosseini Far, Islamic Republic Of Iran Sohel Ahmed, Bangladesh Stefano Ruggiero, Italy Yusof Salimi Namin, Islamic Republic Of Iran TRAVEL Winner Matjaž Šimic, Slovenia Shortlist Akram Menari, Algeria Arun Saha, India Britt Knierim, Netherlands Chim Oanh, Vietnam Karolina Jurkiewicz, Poland Khai Chuin Sim, Malaysia Kunal Gupta, India Liu Song, China Mainland Mike Hellebrand, United Kingdom Nicola Ducati, Italy Ryo Yamamoto, Japan Shubhodeep Roy, India Spyridon Gennatas, Greece STUDENT & YOUTH COMPETITION WINNERS AND SHORTLISTS STUDENT COMPETITION YOUTH COMPETITION Student Photographer of the Year Micaela Valdivia Medina, Peru Instituto Profesional Arcos, Chile Shortlist Albert Słowiński, Poland Academy of Art in Szczecin, Poland Honorata Kornacka, Poland The Maria Grzegorzewska University, Poland Ilana Grollman, United States Emerson College, United States Joel Potter, New Zealand Aut University, New Zealand Louna Pauly, France Ecole Nationale Supérieure Louis Lumière, France Montenez Lowery, United States Georgia State University, Ernest G. Welch School of Art & Design, United States Peter Stougård Maunsbach, Denmark DMJX Danish School of Media and Journalism, Denmark Thapelo Mahlangu, South Africa Stellenbosch Academy of Design and Photography, South Africa Xingyu Fan, China Mainland Nanjing University of the Arts, China Mainland Youth Photographer of the Year Daniel Dian-Ji Wu, Taiwan Shortlist Ankit Ghosh, India Chidima Ugwuedeh, New Zealand Claire Gonzalez, United States Joshua Hasanoff, Australia Landon Chong Chung Yi, Malaysia Matteo Botta, Switzerland Oliver Marks, United States Shayna Cuenca, United States Tinnapat Netcharussaeng, Thailand Zachariah Levens, United Kingdom NOTES TO EDITORS For press enquiries, please contact Polly Brock / Vanda Ivančić on media@ A selection of images is available to download on ### Sony World Photography Awards Produced by Creo under its photography strand World Photography Organisation, the internationally acclaimed Sony World Photography Awards is one of the most important fixtures in the global photographic calendar. Now in its 18th year, the free-to-enter Awards are a global voice for photography and provide a vital insight into contemporary photography today. For both established and emerging artists, the Awards offer world-class opportunities for exposure of their work. The Awards additionally recognise the world's most influential artists working in the medium through the Outstanding Contribution to Photography award; the acclaimed photographer Susan Meiselas is the 2025 recipient of this award, joining a distinguished list of iconic names including William Eggleston (2013), Mary Ellen Mark (2014), Martin Parr (2017), Graciela Iturbide (2021), Edward Burtynsky (2022) and Sebastião Salgado (2024). The Awards showcase the works of winning and shortlisted photographers at a prestigious annual exhibition at Somerset House, London. 2024 Judges Professional Competition: Monica Allende, Independent Curator and Photography Consultant, Chair of the Jury; Yves Chatap, Independent Curator, Publisher, and Art Critic, Cameroon & France; Aldeide Delgado, Founder and Director, Women Photographers International Archive (WOPHA), United States; Vicky Ismach, Curatorial Coordinator, Montevideo Center of Photography (CdF), Uruguay; Manuel Sigrist, Head of Exhibitions and Programmes, Photo Elysée, Switzerland; Isabella Tam, Curator of Visual Art, M+, Hong Kong Open & Youth competitions: Claudia Grimaldi Marks, Senior Manager, New Creator Strategy, Getty Images, United States Student competition: Charlotte Jansen, Author, Journalist and Critic, UK ZED NELSON Photographer of the Year Zed Nelson is acclaimed for long-term projects that explore contemporary society, driven by a critical focus on the intersection of modern capitalism and human psychology. He has published three monographs, Gun Nation , Love Me , and A Portrait of Hackney. OLIVIER UNIA Open Photographer of the Year Olivier Unia is a Morocco-based French photographer. He has been photographing for several years, and is the recipient of various awards, as well as having collaborated with publications. MICAELA VALDIVIA MEDINA Student Photographer of the Year Micaela Valdivia Medina is a student of Professional Photography at Instituto Profesional Arcos in Chile. Her work in photography is in constant movement through social contexts, forms of creation and collectivity. She develops themes of gender, culture, violence and territory through her work. DANIEL DIAN-JI WU Youth Photographer of the Year Daniel Dian-Ji Wu is a 16-year-old photographer and filmmaker from Taiwan, consistently seeking opportunities to express his creativity through the lens. He has created campaign videos, promotional content, and captured events. His work has been exhibited at Taipei National University of the Arts. SUSAN MEISELAS Outstanding Contribution to Photography Susan Meiselas is a documentary photographer based in New York. She is the author of Carnival Strippers (1976), Nicaragua (1981), Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History (1997), Pandora's Box (2001), Encounters with the Dani (2003), Prince Street Girls (2016), A Room of Their Own (2017), Tar Beach (2020) and Carnival Strippers Revisited (2022). Meiselas is well known for her documentation of human rights issues in Latin America. Her photographs are included in North American and international collections. In 1992 she was made a MacArthur Fellow and received a Guggenheim Fellowship (2015). Most recently, she received the first Women in Motion Award from Kering and the Rencontres d'Arles (2019), the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize (2019), and the Erich Salomon Award of the German Society for Photography (2022). Mediations , a survey exhibition of her work from the 1970s to present was initiated by the Jeu de Paume in Paris and travelled to Fundació Antoni Tàpies, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Instituto Moreira Salles in São Paulo, among others. Meiselas has been the President of the Magnum Foundation since 2007, with a mission to expand diversity and creativity in documentary photography. World Photography Organisation World Photography Organisation is a leading global platform dedicated to the development and advancement of photographic culture. Its programming and competition initiatives provide valuable opportunities for artists working in photography and help broaden the conversation around their work. The Sony World Photography Awards is World Photography Organisation's principal programme. Established in 2007, it is one of the world's biggest and most prestigious photography competitions; celebrating the work of leading and emerging practitioners and attracting tens of thousands of visitors annually to its exhibitions worldwide. World Photography Organisation is the photography strand of Creo, which initiates events and programming across three sectors: photography, film and contemporary art. Follow World Photography Organisation on Social Media Instagram: @worldphotoorg X: @WorldPhotoOrg LinkedIn/Facebook: World Photography Organisation Creo Creo initiates and organises events and programming across three key strands: photography, film and contemporary art. Established in 2007 as World Photography Organisation, Creo has since grown in scope, furthering its mission of developing meaningful opportunities for creatives and expanding the reach of its cultural activities. Today, its flagship projects include the Sony World Photography Awards, Sony Future Filmmaker Awards, PHOTOFAIRS and Photo London. Working in partnership with Angus Montgomery Arts, Creo helps deliver the group's ventures, comprising some of the world's leading art fairs. Taking its name from the Latin for 'I create', it is in this spirit that Creo sets out to empower and give agency to creative voices. Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Book The hardback exhibition book will be available to purchase at the exhibition shop in Somerset House and is available to pre-order on (£24.99). This collectible hardcover book celebrates remarkable photographs from the past year and delves into the compelling stories, both big and small, that inspired them. Enjoy award-winning images of all styles, genres and topics and immerse yourself in the unique perspectives of photographers from around the world as you look through its pages. Alongside the acclaimed images, readers will also be able to enjoy an essay dedicated to this year's Outstanding Contribution to Photography recipient Susan Meiselas. Sony Group Corporation Sony Group Corporation is a creative entertainment company with a solid foundation of technology. From Game & Network Services to Music, Pictures, Electronics Products & Solutions, Imaging & Sensing Solutions and Financial Services – Sony's purpose is to fill the world with emotion through the power of creativity and technology. For more information, visit: About Sony Corporation Sony Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation and is responsible for the Entertainment, Technology & Services (ET&S) business. With the mission to 'create the future of entertainment through the power of technology together with creators,' we aim to continue to deliver Kando* to people around the world. For more information, visit: *Kando is a Japanese word that roughly translates to the sense of awe and emotion you feel when experiencing something beautiful and amazing for the first time. About Sony Middle East and Africa Sony Middle East and Africa FZE is a 100% subsidiary of Sony Corporation and is the regional headquarters for the Middle East and Africa regions. The company is engaged in the business of Sony Consumer Electronics, Mobile Electronics (Car Audio), broadcasting and professional products and Computer Entertainment (PlayStation) products in more than 40 countries in the region. Apart from stock operations in the Jebel Ali Free Zone Establishment in Dubai, Sony Middle East and Africa leads execution of various logistics, sales, marketing, advertising and customer services activities through its business partners. 353 accredited third-party service centres reinforce Sony's presence in key markets in the region. For media enquiries, please contact: Srishti Soni Ria Tharakan Atteline DMCC Sony Middle East and Africa FZE Email: sony@ Email:
BBC News
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Gallery: Winners of the Sony World Photography Awards
The winners of the Sony World Photography Awards have been were ten categories including Sport, Wildlife & Nature and Creative, as well as a Youth, Student and Open winners were announced at a special event in photographer Zed Nelson won the Photographer of the Year title and 16-year-old Taiwanese photographer, Daniel Dian-Ji Wu, won Youth Photographer of the Sony World Photography Awards 2025 exhibition is on display at Somerset House, London until 5 out some of the winners below... Zed Nelson won the Photograher of the Year Award as well as the Wildlife and Nature category. His project looks at the artificial spaces people create to interact with nature. In the photo above a chimpanzee at Shanghai Wild Animal Park, in China, sits in front of a painted background, far from the treetops of its natural habitat in the Central Africa. Commenting on his win, Zed Nelson, said: "We have become masters of a stage-managed, artificial 'experience' of nature." While recently popstar Katy Perry and other civilians travelled into space, one photographer has documented how close she got to doing the same. In 2018, Japanese billionaire and art collector Yusaku Maezawa announced a global search for eight artists to join him on a week-long lunar mission aboard SpaceX's Starship – the first civilian mission to deep 2021, artist Rhiannon Adam was chosen as the only female crew member from one million June 2024, after three years of preparation, the mission was suddenly cancelled so Rhiannon never got to make the journey. She tells this story through her photography project, Rhi-Entry. Skateboarding is quite a new sport in India and there are not a huge number of female skaters. Italian photographer Chantal Pinzi travelled to skating communities in cities and villages in images include Asha Gond who competed in the 2018 World Skateboarding Championship and Shradda Gaikwad, a national champion skateboarder in picture above shows an all-female group of skaters in Goa.
Euronews
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
From skater girls to climate illusions: Meet the winners of the 2025 Sony World Photography Awards
ADVERTISEMENT The Sony World Photography Awards have unveiled the winners of their prestigious competition, now in its 18th year - shining a spotlight on the world's most powerful, thought-provoking, and visually arresting images of the past year. At a ceremony in London, British photographer Zed Nelson was named Photographer of the Year for his haunting and deeply timely series The Anthropocene Illusion , which explores humanity's fractured relationship with nature. From safari parks to synthetic green spaces , Nelson's images reveal a world where the wild is staged and the natural is anything but. The evening also celebrated the winners across the Professional, Open, Student, and Youth competitions - alongside a special tribute to legendary documentary photographer Susan Meiselas, this year's recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography award. From intimate portraits of teenagers growing up in Northern Ireland's divided communities to celebrations of Indian women who defy gender stereotypes through skateboarding , this year's winning images are now on display at a sprawling exhibition at London's Somerset House, running until 5 May 2025. Here's a small selection from this year's most striking winning images: Zed Nelson: 'Anthropocene Illusion' (Photographer of the Year) A six-year journey exploring how humanity's devastating impact on the planet is masked by artificial, stage-managed experiences of nature. From the series 'Anthropocene Illusion' by Zed Nelson, UK, Photographer of the Year, Professional competition, Wildlife & Nature, Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Credit: Zed Nelson From the series 'Anthropocene Illusion' by Zed Nelson, UK, Photographer of the Year, Professional competition, Wildlife & Nature, Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Credit: Zed Nelson Olivier Unia: 'Tbourida La Chute' (Open Photographer of the Year) A photograph capturing the danger and excitement of the moment a rider is thrown from their mount during a tbourida , a traditional Moroccan equestrian performance. Olivier Unia, France, Open Photographer of the Year, Open Competition, Motion, Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Credit: Olivier Unia/Dharma Prod Daniel Dian-Ji Wu (Youth Photographer of the Year) For his gorgeous image of a skateboarder doing a trick, silhouetted against a sunset in Venice Beach, Los Angeles. Daniel Dian-Ji Wu, Taiwan, Youth Photographer of the Year, Youth Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Credit: Daniel Dian-Ji Wu Micaela Valdivia Medina: 'The Last Day We Saw the Mountains and the Sea' (Student Photographer of the Year) A project exploring the complexity of female prison spaces and the people who inhabit them, from the inmates to their families. It was carried out at the women's penitentiary centres of San Miguel, San Joaquín and Valparaíso, between the months of March and July 2024. Micaela Valdivia Medina, Peru, Student Photographer of the Year, Student Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Credit: Micaela Valdivia Medina Toby Binder: 'Divided Youth of Belfast' (Documentary Projects, Winner) Documenting what it means for young people, all of whom were born after the peace agreement was signed, to grow up under this intergenerational tension in both Protestant and Catholic neighbourhoods in Northern Ireland. Toby Binder, Germany, Winner, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Credit: Toby Binder Chantal Pinzi: 'Shred the Patriarchy' (Sport, Winner) Captures the stories of young Indian women who use skateboarding as a form of resistance - challenging gender stereotypes and reclaiming public spaces. Chantal Pinzi, Italy, Winner, Professional competition, Sport, Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Credit: Chantal Pinzi Gui Christ: 'M'kumba' (Sport, Winner) Illustrating the resilience of Afro-Brazilian communities in the face of local religious intolerance. Its name derives from an ancient Kongo word for spiritual leaders, before it was distorted by local society to demean African religions. Gui Christ, Brazil, Winner, Professional competition, Portraiture, Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Credit: Gui Christ Laura Pannack: 'The Journey Home From School' (Perspectives, Winner) Exploring the tumultuous lives of young people in the gang-governed Cape Flats area of Cape Town, South Africa, where their daily commute carries the risk of death. Laura Pannack, 'The journey home from school', United Kingdom, Winner, Professional competition, Perspectives, Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Credit: Laura Pannack- The journey home from school Nicolás Garrido Huguet: 'Alquimia Textil' (Environment, Winner) Celebrating the ancestral dyeing techniques of artisans in Chinchero, Peru, highlighting their intricate, time-intensive craft and the natural materials they use. Nicolás Garrido Huguet, Peru, Winner, Professional competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Credit: JRMStudio/Nicolás Garrido Huguet Rhiannon Adam: 'Rhi-Entry' (Creative, Winner) A project following artist Rhiannon Adam's extraordinary journey as the only woman selected for a civilian mission to the Moon - an ambitious art residency aboard SpaceX that was unexpectedly cancelled, leaving its chosen crew to grapple with broken dreams and unfinished futures. ADVERTISEMENT Rhiannon Adam, United Kingdom, Winner, Professional competition, Creative, Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Credit: Rhiannon Adam Seido Kino: 'The Strata of Time' (Landscape, Winner) Exploring Japan's post-war economic growth by overlaying archival photos from the 1940s–60s onto present-day scenes, highlighting how past development has shaped modern challenges like pollution and population imbalance. Seido Kino, Japan, Winner, Professional competition, Landscape, Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Credit: Seido Kino Ulana Switucha: 'The Tokyo Toilet Project' (Architecture & Design, Winner) Documents the striking, artful public toilets redesigned across Shibuya, Tokyo - capturing how functional architecture can transform everyday spaces into visually engaging, thoughtfully designed landmarks. Ulana Switucha, Canada, Winner, Professional competition, Architecture & Design, Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Credit: Ulana Switucha Peter Franck: 'Still Waiting' (Still Life, Winner) A series of collages that explore moments of pause and uncertainty—capturing the quiet tension just before something changes. Peter Franck, Germany, Winner, Professional competition, Still Life, Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Credit: Peter Franck Antonio López Díaz: The Chad Olympic Team (Sport, 3rd place) A docuseries about four Chadian girls whose journey to become Olympic gymnasts in Spain sparks the creation of Chad's first gymnastics federation. ADVERTISEMENT Antonio López Díaz, Spain, 3rd Place, Professional competition, Sport, Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Credit: Antonio López Díaz Alex Bex: 'Memories of Dust' ( Documentary Projects, 3rd place) Exploring the visual vocabulary of the cowboy, to consider new ways of presenting this archetype of masculinity. Alex Bex, France, 3rd Place, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Credit: Alex Bex Raúl Belinchón: 'The Mud Angels' (Portraiture, Winner) Documenting the aftermath of Spain's worst flooding in Valencia, and focusing on the young volunteers - dubbed the 'Mud Angels' - who selflessly aided recovery efforts. Raúl Belinchón, Spain, 2nd Place, Professional competition, Portraiture, Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Credit: Raúl Belinchón
