Sony World Photography Awards

Sony World Photography Awards

Sony World Photography Awards

OPEN COMPETITION CATEGORY WINNERS

More than 345,000 images from 203 territories were submitted across the Awards’ four competitions – the highest number to date.

Sony World Photography Awards

© Rosaria Sabrina Pantano, Italy, Winner, Open competition, Architecture, 2020 Sony World Photography Awards

Emotional Geography is a black & white image featuring 38° Parallelo, a pyramid-shaped sculpture by Mauro Staccioli which stands at the exact point where the geographical coordinates touch the 38th parallel.

Sony World Photography Awards

© Suxing Zhang, China Mainland, Winner, Open competition, Creative, 2020 Sony World Photography Awards

Knot is a portrait of a young woman with a collage of symbolic elements. This single black & white image is part of the series Hua (meaning flower in Chinese) which looks at flowers as metaphors of femininity.

Sony World Photography Awards

© Antoine Veling, Australia, Winner, Open competition, Culture, 2020 Sony World Photography Awards

Mark 5:28, a photograph capturing the moment when members of the audience were invited on stage to dance at an Iggy Pop concert in the Sydney Opera House on 17 April 2019. Depicting Iggy Pop in a crowd of dancing fans, the image focuses on the singer, a woman reaching to touch him and a stage assistant struggling to keep people at bay. The scene, which was likened to a Caravaggio painting, conjures a biblical passage: Because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” (Mark 5:25-34, line 28).

Sony World Photography Awards

© Craig McGowan, Australia, Winner, Open competition, Landscape, 2020 Sony World Photography Awards

Ice Reflections, an image of a solitary iceberg, set against the fjord walls in Northeast Greenland National Park. The iceberg and surrounding landscape are perfectly mirrored in the clear waters of the river, resulting in a painterly and abstract photograph.

Sony World Photography Awards

© Alec Connah, United Kingdom, Winner, Open competition, Motion, 2020 Sony World Photography Awards

Going Down!, a record of the moment the four cooling towers of Ironbridge Power Station in Shropshire were demolished on 6 December 2019.

Sony World Photography Awards

© Guofei Li, China Mainland, Winner, Open competition, Natural World & Wildlife, 2020 Sony World Photography Awards

Tai Chi Diagram, taken in Botswana, is a picture featuring two cheetahs licking each other clean following a successful hunt – their position in the frame resembles the shape of a Yin and Yang symbol.

© Tom Oldham, United Kingdom, Winner, Open competition, Portraiture, 2020 Sony World Photography Awards

Black Francis, a black & white portrait, originally taken for MOJO Magazine, of Pixies frontman Charles Thompson (aka Black Francis). When approaching the assignment, Oldham, an experienced portrait photographer, was painfully aware of the many photoshoots his sitter has been the subject of and asked him to acknowledge his frustration with the process. The resulting image, picturing the singer digging his hands into his face, offered the perfect gesture and ran as the lead image for the article.

Sony World Photography Awards

© Jorge Reynal, Argentina, Winner, Open competition, Still Life, 2020 Sony World Photography Awards

A Plastic Ocean is a photograph of a dead fish seemingly struggling for breath in a plastic bag. The image aims to highlight the plastic pollution crisis impacting our oceans.

Sony World Photography Awards

© Santiago Mesa, Colombia, Winner, Open competition, Street Photography, 2020 Sony World Photography Awards

Colombia Resiste, the photograph, documents a protester in the city of Medellín where workers and street vendors were taking part in a march when the Medellín riot squad dispersed them. This demonstration is one of many that have broken out across Latin America in recent years for reasons including the rising cost of living, inequality and lack of opportunity.

Sony World Photography Awards

© Adrian Guerin, Australia, Winner, Open competition, Travel, 2020 Sony World Photography Awards

Riding a Saharan Freight Train was taken from the top of the rear carriage of the iron-ore train in Mauritania as it was making its 700 km long journey from the coastal town of Nouadhibou to the Saharan wilderness of Zouérat. Stretching 2.5 km in length, it’s one of the longest trains in the world, transporting more than 200 carriages loaded with rocks.

Images were judged anonymously by Gisela Kayser, the Managing Director and Artistic Director at the Freundeskreis Willy-Brandt-Haus cultural centre in Germany. The images were chosen for their power to communicate a visual narrative with excellent technical and creative skills. International in scope and subject matter, and rich and varied in their brilliance, these photographs celebrate photography’s diversity as it exists today. The Open Photographer of the Year chosen from the 10 category winners will be revealed on 9 June on our online and social platforms. The winner is awarded $5,000 (USD) to develop their passion for photography.

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