For its 19th edition, the Sony World Photography Awards welcomed over 430,000 submissions for its Open competition from photographers in more than 200 countries and territories around the globe. Ten categories, ranging from portraiture to landscapes to travel, encompass the staggering breadth and beauty of nature and society captured throughout 2025.
The contest has announced the category winners, including Robby Ogilvie’s vibrant composition of a vintage car in front of colorful buildings in the Bo-Kaap neighborhood in Cape Town, South Africa, and Klaus Hellmich’s portrait of an arctic fox braving a blizzard.
“The Open competition recognises the best single images taken in the last year,
celebrating the power of an individual image to pique curiosity, spark imagination, and reveal a wider narrative,” says a statement.
The top award of Open Photographer of the Year will be announced on April 16 in London, the day after which the contest’s exhibition opens at Somerset House, where it remains on view through May 4.
