World Photography Organisation

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World Photography Organisation

A leading global platform for photography. The Sony World Photography Awards is World Photography Organisation’s principal programme.

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. Established in 2007, it is one of the world’s biggest and most prestigious photography competitions; celebr

ating 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, responsible for delivering initiatives and programming across three sectors: photography, film and contemporary art. In addition to the Sony World Photography Awards these include: PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai, Photo London and the Sony Future Filmmaker Awards.

19/06/2026

The biggest ever Sony World Photography Awards travelling exhibition arrives in Tokyo, Japan this Saturday!

Opening at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum from 20 June, our most ambitious travelling showcase will present over 200 prints. A special display of works by Joel Meyerowitz, a recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography 2026, will also be on view.

At the same time, an annual display has returned to the Sony Imaging Gallery Ginza from 19 June - 2 July. This exhibition focuses on highlights from the Architecture & Design and Landscape categories, as well as portraiture and wildlife photography.

Admission is free to both exhibitions. Each venue presents a distinct selection of works from the 2026 Awards, showcasing the finest photography from around the world.

If you're in Tokyo, make sure to visit both!

📍 Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
📅 20 June - 20 July
🆓 Free Admission

📍 Sony Imaging Gallery Ginza
📅 19 June - 2 July
🆓 Free Admission

Curated by Monica Allende

© Megumi Murakami; © Megan Tavarez; © Tommy Trenchard; © Dara Petrova; © Fredrik Lerneryd; © Marcus Westberg; © Seungho Kim; © Anita Pouchard Serra; © Santiago Mesa; © Vanta Coda III, 2026 Sony World Photography Awards

15/06/2026

Each winter, thousands of migratory birds — geese, ducks, egrets, herons — transform Northern California into a sanctuary of sound and motion. This photograph by Jassen Todorov captures the migration from above, and was taken from the photographer’s single-engine plane.

Todorov was shortlisted in Open (now Single Image) competition's Landscape category in the Sony World Photography Awards 2026.

The 2027 edition is now open! Enter your best photographs for free for a chance to win amazing prizes and elevate your career.

© Jassen Todorov, United States, Shortlist, Open Competition, Landscape, 2026 Sony World Photography Awards

05/06/2026

The Black Album by Pablo Ramos

Pablo Ramos is a cinematographer and documentary filmmaker whose work focuses on social justice, exploring the links between violence, memory and resistance. Ramos is a co-founder of Tortugas al Viento, a Mexico City-based film and photography collective. His work has screened at festivals worldwide.

His series won 2nd Place in the Creative category, Series competition (Previously Professional) in the Sony World Photography Awards 2026.

📸
With more than 130,000 individuals currently reported missing in Mexico, and a new disappearance occurring approximately every 40 minutes, The Black Album transforms archival imagery into a haunting collective portrait of absence, loss, and unresolved grief. Rather than documenting disappearance directly, this photographic essay reinterprets the past to question the future. Through an intervention in a photographic archive, the project constructs a symbolic ‘album’ of Mexico’s disappeared - an unsettling reflection of a country living through a prolonged dark era in which absence has become routine and invisibility systemic.

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The 2027 edition is now open for entries: bit.ly/SWPA-2027

© Pablo Ramos, Mexico, 2nd Place, Professional Competition, Creative, 2026 Sony World Photography Awards

04/06/2026

Jeirin Anton from Sri Lanka was just 16 years old when he captured this photograph of a majestic peacock.

Anton's image was shortlisted in last year's Youth competition in the Sony World Photography Awards 2026.

If you're aged 19 or under, make sure to enter your best shots to this year's Youth competition.

Entry is free and you could win Sony Digital Imaging equipment, inclusion in the London exhibition, and promotion via our channels.

👉 Submit for free: bit.ly/SWPA-2027

© Jeirin Anton, Sri Lanka, Shortlist, Youth Competition, 2026 Sony World Photography Awards

03/06/2026

Everyday Structures by André Tezza

⭐ Tezza is a photographer and former university professor based in Curitiba, Brazil. He holds a master’s degree in Philosophy and a PhD in Communication Sciences, and has taught photography in advertising, journalism and design. His work was previously awarded second place in the Sony World Photography Awards 2025.

His series won 2nd Place in the Architecture & Design category in the Sony World Photography Awards 2026.

📸 Everyday Structures is an ongoing project documents small neighbourhood grocery stores on the outskirts of Curitiba, in southern Brazil. These modest structures form an architecture of resistance that persists even as large retail chains reshape the city. Often family-run and linked to domestic spaces, the stores merge work, memory and dwelling into a single building. While the city centre undergoes gentrification, the periphery remains culturally dense and visually vibrant. This series reflects a belief that architectural beauty exists in ordinary, overlooked places.

© André Tezza, Brazil, 2nd Place, Professional Competition, Architecture & Design, 2026 Sony World Photography Awards

01/06/2026

The Sony World Photography Awards are back - and this year is a landmark one! 🎉

Now in our 20th year, the world's leading photography competition is officially open for submissions, completely free of charge, and welcomes photographers worldwide.

This year brings refreshed competition names - the Professional category is now Series, and Open is now Single Image. We've also added two brand new categories: Histories (Series) and Animal Portraits (Single Image). And for the first time ever, you can enter both Series and Single Image - just make sure your submitted work is different!

This year's competitions:
📷 Series (formerly Professional)
🖼 Single Image (formerly Open)
🎓 Student
👀 Youth

Prizes include Sony Digital Imaging equipment, up to $25,000, a solo show, exhibition in London and worldwide, and a place at our black-tie Awards ceremony.

Key deadlines:
Student: 27 November 2026, 13:00 GMT
Single Image: 5 January 2027, 13:00 GMT
Youth: 5 January 2027, 13:00 GMT
Series: 12 January 2027, 13:00 GMT

Enter for free now: https://bit.ly/43aX0a7

Images: © Marcus Westberg; © Hugo Hebbe; © Mário Cruz; © Tania Shcheglova; © Sascha Schernthaner; © Hans-Juergen Burkard; © Ron Timehin; © Borja Abargues

26/05/2026

Todd Antony won 1st Place in the Sport category in the Sony World Photography Awards Professional competition for 'Buzkashi'.

⭐ Antony is a New Zealand-born, London-based photographer whose work focuses on little-known groups beyond the familiar frame. Blending documentary observation with a considered cinematic approach to light and colour, his work has been recognised internationally, including in the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize.

📷
Buzkashi (literally meaning 'goat pulling' in Persian) is the fierce, ancient sport of Tajikistan. It is similar to polo, but there are no teams and no boundaries. The ball is the eviscerated, headless carcass of a goat and the aim is brutally simple: seize it, hold it, break free. The game was born among the nomadic horse cultures of Central Asia, where strength and horsemanship were measures of identity. For centuries, chapandaz (riders) have hurled themselves into this churning mass of hooves and bodies, fighting for honour and a moment of clear sky among the dust.

© Todd Antony, New Zealand, 1st Place, Professional Competition, Sport, Sony World Photography Awards 2026

24/05/2026

We hope you're enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon! 🌞

Polish photographer Sebastian Szczepanowski captures a timeless summer moment at a lakeside campsite: conversations drifting, dishes waiting to be washed, and time stretching slowly between shade, heat, and rest.

© Sebastian Szczepanowski, Poland, Shortlist, Open Competition, Lifestyle, 2026 Sony World Photography Awards

22/05/2026

Seungho Kim won 1st Place in the Perspectives category in the Sony World Photography Awards Professional competition for 'Sunny Side Up: A Portrait of the Most Average K-Parenting Today'.

⭐ Seoul-based Seungho Kim is a writer, painter and photographer whose goal is to capture beauty, whether it is real or imagined. He is the founder of Ordinary K, a documentary group recording contemporary life in Korea.

📷 South Korea stands at a crossroads. In 2023, the country’s birth rate hit a record-low of 0.72 children per woman, while more than six million households now find the meaning of family in their dogs. Choosing between a child and a pet has become an ironic reality. However, the photographer of this series chose to put both ends of this spectrum ‘onto life's hot frying pan.’ These photos are his ‘sunny side up’: a fragile, vibrant and beautifully messy record of the K-parenting world that lies ahead.

© Seungho Kim, Korea, Republic Of, 1st Place, Professional Competition, Perspectives, 2026 Sony World Photography Awards

18/05/2026

Isadora Romero won 1st Place in the Environment category in the Sony World Photography Awards Professional competition for 'Notes on How to Build a Forest'.

⭐ Romero is an Ecuadorian photographer and visual artist. Her long-term projects focus on social and environmental justice in Latin America, using documentary and experimental photography to explore the relationship between territory, memory and ecology.

📷 Notes on How to Build a Forest is a photographic project developed in Ecuador, in the territories of Mache Chindul and Yunguilla — landscapes marked by layered histories of settlement and relationships with the forest. Through documentary and experimental photography that includes infrared, thermal, and pinhole techniques, as well as community archives intervened with fungi, the photographer invites us ‘to imagine how other organisms perceive the forest, and how the forest, in turn, observes us’.

In dialogue with scientific knowledge, the work constructs a polyphonic narrative that understands forests as plural, complex, and cultural spaces, expanding the ways in which conservation can be conceived.

© Isadora Romero, Ecuador, 1st Place, Professional Competition, Environment, 2026 Sony World Photography Awards

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