Importance Score: 35 / 100 🔵
The 2025 Sony World Photography Awards have announced its winners in the 18th edition of the prestigious annual competition. British photographer Zed Nelson has been awarded the esteemed Photographer of the Year title for his compelling series, The Anthropocene Illusion.
Photographer of the Year: Zed Nelson – The Anthropocene Illusion
Monica Allende, chair of the 2025 professional jury, lauded Zed Nelson’s work as “striking,” stating that the jury “applauds” his “ability to translate complex environmental issues into striking visual narratives.” Allende further elaborated on The Anthropocene Illusion, describing it as a depiction of “a world where 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.”
Exhibition on Display in London
The Sony World Photography Awards exhibition is currently being showcased at Somerset House in London until May 5th, featuring over 300 impactful images.
Open and Category Winners
The awards also recognized outstanding work across various categories, celebrating diverse photographic styles and subjects.
Open Competition Winner: Olivier Unia
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French photographer Olivier Unia secured victory in the Open Competition with a captivating image from a traditional Moroccan tbourida, an equestrian performance. Unia aimed to highlight the inherent dangers of these events through his photograph.
Youth Photographer of the Year: Daniel Dian – Ji Wu
Taiwanese photographer Daniel Dian – Ji Wu received the Youth Photographer of the Year Award for a photograph taken during ‘golden hour’ at Venice Beach Skatepark in Los Angeles. The image evokes a “sense of passion and freedom,” according to the photographer.
Documentary Projects Winner: Toby Binder
German photographer Toby Binder won the Documentary Projects category with an image captured in Belfast. Binder’s work aims to document the lives of “young people” in regions where past conflicts remain a significant part of daily life, as exemplified in Northern Ireland.
Sport Category Winner: Chantal Pinzi
Italian photographer Chantal Pinzi triumphed in the Sport category with Shred the Patriarchy, a collection of images depicting female skateboarders in India. Pinzi’s compelling photographs showcase how these women are “challenge stereotypes” and “fight marginalization.”
Creative Category Winner: Rhiannon Adam
Rhiannon Adam secured the Creative category award with a haunting image related to the space industry. The image stems from Adam’s experience as a participant in a week-long lunar mission on Space X’s Starship, which was “abruptly cancelled” in 2024.
Portraiture Category Winner: Gui Christ
Brazilian photographer Gui Christ’s “intimate” photos won the Portraiture category, aiming to “illustrate the resilience of Afro-Brazilian communities in the face of local religious intolerance.” Christ states his project seeks to “challenge prejudice” and “celebrate” the community’s “spiritual traditions.”
Architecture and Design Category Winner: Ulana Switucha
Canadian photographer Ulana Switucha claimed victory in the Architecture and Design category with unique images of toilets in Tokyo, Japan. Switucha’s project presents these structures as “works of art.”
Environment Category Winner: Nicolas Garrido Huguet
Peruvian photographer Nicolas Garrido Huguet earned the Environment category award with a powerful image depicting artisans in Cusco, Peru, utilizing natural dyeing techniques for textiles.
Landscape Category Winner: Seido Kino
Japanese photographer Seido Kino won the Landscape category for a poignant project that “invites viewers to consider what it means for a country to grow.” The photos, taken in Japan, juxtapose archival images from the 1940s-60s with contemporary scenes of the same locations, illustrating the country’s transformation.
Student Photographer of the Year: Micaela Valdivia Medina
Peruvian photographer Micaela Valdivia Medina was named Student Photographer of the Year for a poignant photo from a series exploring the “complexity of female prison spaces.” The images were captured at various prisons in Chile.
This impactful image is part of Micaela Valdivia Medina’s series taken within female prisons in Chile.
Photographer of the Year winner, British photographer Zed Nelson, captured this striking image at Shanghai Wild Animal Park in China. Nelson’s photos delve into how humans “immerse” themselves in “increasingly choreographed and simulated environments to mask” their “destructive impact on the natural world.”
Zed Nelson, the recipient of the overall Photographer of the Year Award, created this powerful image, stating: “While we devastate the world around us, we have become masters of a stage-managed, artificial ‘experience’ of nature.”