The top and shortlisted entries from the 10 categories in this year’s contest for professionals were just announced, selected from more than 430,000 submissions.

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© Sunita Mandal / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Wildlife & Nature. From a project named Born of Ice. A mother polar bear shelters two tiny cubs at the mouth of a wind-carved snow den on Baffin Island’s sea ice in their first weeks above ground.

A group of synchronized swimmers pose in a cluster underwater, in a swimming pool.

© Delfina Pignatiello / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Sport. From a project named Nymphs, an underwater photographic series shot in a swimming pool using a camera in a waterproof housing. Lights were placed outside the water to provide both front and back lighting, with the images of national synchronized swimmers captured using breath-hold immersion.

A weathered four-story watchtower stands above a field and smaller buildings.

© Chen Liang / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Finalist, Architecture & Design. From a project named Chinese Watchtowers, about a unique set of watchtowers in Jiangmen, in China’s Guangdong Province, built from 1912 to 1949. Seen here is the Zunzhen family school in Jiangmen.

A massive storm cloud shaped like an upside-down funnel looms over farmland on a broad plain.

© David Baxter III / Sony World Photography Awards 2026“UFOs in New Mexico.” Shortlist, Landscape. From a project named Supercells: Mother Nature Unleashed. David Baxter: “A UFO-style supercell slowly morphs over the southern High Plains of New Mexico, bringing some of the best structure Tornado Alley has to offer.”

Five boys and young men pose outside a building beside a horse.

© Ron Timehin / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Portraiture. From a project named The Labadi Community, featuring a community “shaped by canoe fishing and fish processing” on Accra’s coast in Ghana, on the Gulf of Guinea. Ron Timehin: “These young boys from the Labadi community are quickly becoming men, already engaging in manual labour and fishing to help support their village. One even has a child of his own. The Ghanaian flag on the left is a tribute to their country, which they take pride in.”

Spores are released from a mushroom, falling toward the ground.

© Benjamin Pawlica / Sony World Photography Awards 2026“Rain of Spores.” Shortlist, Wildlife & Nature. From a project named Fairy Mushroom Sporulations, showcasing spores being released from a number of different mushrooms.

A herd of 13 elephants walks through wetland area, seen from above.

© Marcus Westberg / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Wildlife & Nature. From a project named South Sudan’s Forgotten Wilderness, featuring aerial photographs of many different animals in the region. Here, a herd of African savanna elephants moves through wetlands in Jonglei State.

Three dogs jump up on a person while playing on a beach.

© Hans-Juergen Burkard / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Portraiture. From a project named Dog Beach, featuring images of dogs and their humans along the North Sea coast in Germany.

Two people stand on a smooth rock beside the craggy face of a glacier.

© Liam Man / Sony World Photography Awards 2026“Standing on New Ground.” Shortlist, Landscape. From a project named When Mountains Move, featuring images of the Leones Glacier in Chile. At the terminus of the Leones Glacier, freshly exposed bedrock shows where the ice has retreated. The rocks, polished by millennia of glacial abrasion, are now uncovered by the relentless melting.

The face of a gorilla, sitting in a forest, staring into the distance.

© Hugo Hebbe / Sony World Photography Awards 2026“Kamaya.” Shortlist, Wildlife & Nature. From a project named Guardians of the Jungle, exploring encounters with wild western lowland gorillas in the Congo Basin. Hugo Hebbe: “Kamaya sits in full majesty, gazing into the distance in the jungle of Gabon. His massive frame dominates the image, imposing yet composed. Although fully wild, he has grown accustomed to human presence.”

In a dim bathroom, a girl crouches on a wet floor, visibly overwhelmed, staring at the window. Water pools around her feet.

© Shaohan Fang / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Portraiture. From a project named En Route, which “attempts to capture the state of being adrift in the face of the unknown, reflecting a shared struggle to find direction and meaning.”

A coyote walks on a ridge, with the skyline of San Francisco in the background.

© Loren Elliott / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Wildlife & Nature. From a project named The Coyotes of San Francisco.

An aerial view of lines of racks, part of an oyster farm, set up on a beach with several stream paths visible in the sand.

© Andreas Secci / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Finalist, Landscape. From a project named The Oyster, featuring abstract landscapes depicting oyster farming on the French coast of Normandy and Brittany.

A girl wears a long veil made of green beads.

© Alessandro Gandolfi / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Still Life. From a project named Knock on Wood and Cross Your Fingers, featuring superstitions and good luck charms. Alessandro Gandolfi: “An animist girl from the Sara people is given a veil made of green beads to cover her face during a ceremony of initiation and passage to adulthood in Moundou, Chad.”

A head-on view of a greyhound running over sandy ground, kicking up dust and sand.

© Rob Van Thienen / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Finalist, Sport. From a project named It’s a Dog’s Life, featuring sight-hound training sessions.

Several workers walk over a chaotic jumble of damaged floating solar panels.

© Yi-Hsuan Lin / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Environment. From a project named Floating Solar Panels, featuring typhoon-damaged rafts of floating solar panels along Taiwan’s coast.

A young woman, seated on a bed in a bedroom

© Dara Petrova / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Perspectives. From a project named Circle, featuring images of life in Ukraine during the ongoing Russian invasion.

Several people in a car look out their windows at a capybara that is grazing near the road.

© Anita Pouchard Serra / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Finalist, Wildlife & Nature. From a project named Capybaras at the Forefront of the Dispute and Resistance in Buenos Aires. Passengers in a car watch a capybara eating grass by the side of a road running through the private city in Nordelta, Tigre, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Costumed performers sit along a sidewalk, half-dressed, during a break.

© Dong Wei / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Documentary Projects. From a project named The Gathering Table, featuring varied forms of collectivism found in Sichuan and Chongqing in China.

A landscape image of distant, tall mountains seen beyond hills and lakes.

© Daniel Clavería / Sony World Photography Awards 2026“Reflections of Serenity.” Shortlist, Landscape. From a project named The Last Glow, featuring photographs of Argentine and Chilean Patagonia region during autumn.

Two people, seen on horseback, against a gray sky.

© Todd Antony / Sony World Photography Awards 2026“Against the Reins.” Finalist, Sport. From a project named Buzkashi, depicting players of this ancient sport in Tajikistan.

Be sure to see all of the honored images in the galleries on Sony’s official competition website.

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