Sony World Photography Awards 2025: The illusion of the human age

Contents

The winners of this year's SWPA were announced last night in London. The overall winner of the Sony World Photography Awards 2025 is Zed Nelson. The Brit won with his socio-critical entry "The Anthropocene Illusion", for which he traveled the world for six years. In his photos, he shows the impact of humans on nature and animal habitats. These include a monkey peering curiously through the glass of a car window, or a pipe disturbing the peaceful sight of a group of fish. Zed Nelson describes the effect of the animals in his pictures like actors that we humans allow to exist there.

The photographer wins 25,000 dollars in prize money, Sony photographic equipment and a place in the competition's exhibition and illustrated book.

A lifetime achievement award went to American photographer Susan Meiselas, who has been documenting the lives of everyday people in different societies for decades.

Category winners

The winners of the individual categories in the professional field impressed the jury with their extraordinary and sometimes stirring concepts:

Architecture and Design: Ulana Switucha from Canada with her series of images "The Tokyo Toilet Project", which deals with the idiosyncratic aesthetics of public toilets in a Japanese architectural project.

Creative: Rhiannon Adam from the UK with her contribution "Rhi-Entry", in which she deals with her application and the final failure of the private moon mission for artists – dearMoon –.

Documentation: Toby Binder from Germany with his series "Divided Youth of Belfast", which aims to create empathy for young people in torn societies.

Environment: Nicolás Garrido Huguet from Peru with his series "Alquimia Textil", which shows that textile dyeing is also possible in harmony with nature.

Landscape: Seido Kino from Japan with his series "The Strata of Time", which uses various collages of old and new images to illustrate the unequal population distribution in Japan.

Perspective: Laura Pannack from the UK with her project "The Journey Home from School", which deals with the dangerous journey home from school for young people in Cape Town.

Portrait: Gui Christ from Brazil with the series "M'kumba", which raises awareness of the oppressed culture and religion of Brazilians of African descent

Sport: Chantal Pinzi from Italy with her long-term project "Shred the Patriarchy", in which she portrays courageous female skaters in patriarchal societies.

Still life: Peter Franck from Germany with "Still Waiting", a collage series that deals with the brief moments between two events.

Wildlife: Zed Nelson from the UK with "The Anthropocene Illusion", a socio-critical look at people who take over the environment and degrade animals and locals to performers of their own imagination

You can see the winning images in the various categories in our photo gallery:

Bild 1 von 10

Gewinnerbilder SWPA (10 Bilder)

Die Illusion des Anthropozäns

Open Entries

The "Open Photographer of the Year" winner is the French photographer Olivier Unia. He was chosen from the first-place winners of the individual categories in the non-professional field and impressed with his motif of a traditional Moroccan group of riders. Unlike other photographers, he did not show the riders at their proudest, but captured a scene of defeat and pain as one of the riders fell from his horse. The extremely dynamic scene and composition in the picture are reminiscent of a Rembrandt painting.

The individual winners in ten categories ranging from architecture to travel photography had already been selected and announced in advance: Xuecheng Liu (Architecture), Jonell Francisco (Creative), Ng Guang Ze (Landscape), Hajime Hirano (Lifestyle), Olivier Unia (Movement), Estebane Rezkallah (Wildlife), Sussi Charlotte Alminde (Object), Yeintze Boutamba (Portrait), Khairizal Maris (Street), Matjaž Šimic (Travel Photography).

Young talents

The winner of the "Student Competition" is Micaela Valdivia Medina from Peru, who will also receive photographic equipment for her university. In her series, Medina focused on the environment and dynamics surrounding the women's prisons San Miguel, San Joaquín and Valparaíso.

Sixteen-year-old Daniel Dian-Ji Wu from Taiwan impressed the jury with his entry in the category for young photographers up to the age of 19. His motif shows a group of skaters in action. The picture was taken in the golden evening sun of California.

German finalists

Two familiar faces from Germany were also among the finalists. Photographer Toby Binder won in the documentary category with his black and white series "Youth of Belfast". In his pictures, he provides a bleak insight into the lives of young people in Northern Ireland. The photographer tries to create empathy for young people from precarious backgrounds who have to bow to the pressures of society.

The second German finalist, Peter Frank, won over the jury in the creative category with his collages that capture moments of waiting. The artist deliberately leaves room for interpretation.

The competition

Since 2007, the jurors of the Sony World Photo Awards have been honoring photographic art by professional photographers, but also independent entries and pictures by young up-and-coming artists in various categories. This year, the jury had to choose from almost 420,000 photos – - the largest number of images submitted since the competition began. In addition to cash and non-cash prizes, the main winner will receive their own exhibition in London the following year.

All the winning images will be on display at Somerset House in London from April 17 to May 5, 2025, before being exhibited as a traveling exhibition in other cities around the world.

(hoh)