"Pictures tell stories, and photography is the language I find most expressive. There is something more nuanced about a picture than a sentence; it leaves more room for a viewer to wonder."

"I like being able to look at the photographs and understand what they are telling me without having to read the text description about them. I want the photographs to speak for themselves."

We choose the last of our entries of the week, before the Open competition of the 2017 Sony World Photography Awards close on January 5.

See the some of the best new entries to the Open competition of the 2017 Sony World Photography Awards, from the week commencing Dec 19.

Russ O’Connell is Picture Editor of The Sunday Times Magazine and a judge for the Professional competition of the 2017 Sony World Photography Awards.

"In Japan, the firefly season comes at the beginning of rainy season. These photos were captured on mountains in the Shikoku Island, the smallest of Japan's four main islands."