2026 Open Competition Category Winners and Shortlists Announced

The second announcement of the season is here and it features more than 100 striking standalone shots from around the world - from Argentina to Japan to the United Kingdom and beyond - that are bound to stop you in your tracks.

Selected from over 430,000 images from more than 200 countries and territories submitted to the Sony World Photography Awards, these are some of the best photographs captured in the past year. With 10 diverse categories spanning wildlife, street photography, portraiture, and beyond, the submissions offer a fantastic survey of what inspires and excites contemporary photographers around the world.

This year’s Open competition was judged by Ruby Rees-Sheridan, Assistant Curator, Photography, National Portrait Gallery, UK.

Discover the category winners below, and don’t miss the chance to see them in person at the 2026 exhibition, open 17 April - 4 May at Somerset House, London.
 

Architecture

Markus Naarttijärvi’s Industrial Layers captures a paper mill in Obbola, Sweden on a dark November night, revealing layers of shadows, concrete, clouds and sky.

View the full Architecture & Design shortlist
 

Creative

Siavosh Eljali’s Lost Hope is a carefully composed portrait, using staged and symbolic elements in a poignant ode to Iranian women.
 
View the full Creative shortlist
 

Landscape

J Fritz Rumpf’s Shapes and Patterns of the Desert shows the Sossusvlei dunes in Namibia under an early morning glow, utilising the shadows and layers to create a geometric landscape.
 
View the full Landscape shortlist
 

Lifestyle

Vanta Coda III documents the moment a young girl Charlotte, and her cow Dolly, keeps cool between events of the 1000th State Fair of West Virginia in Lewisburg.
 
View the full Lifestyle shortlist


Motion

Franklin Littlefield’s energy-packed image depicts a punk show in Providence, Rhode Island, featuring the band Sailboat.

View the full Motion shortlist
 

Natural World & Wildlife

Klaus Hellmich captures a low-light, dreamy image of a blue arctic fox facing a blizzard on the Varanger Peninsula, Norway.

View the full Natural World & Wildlife shortlist
 

Object

Robby Ogilvie centres his frame on a parked car set against a sharply divided colourful facade in the Bo-Kaap neighbourhood of Cape Town, South Africa.

View the full Object shortlist


Portraiture

Elle Leontiev documents Phillip, a self-taught volcanologist standing barefoot atop a volcanic rock bomb on the ash plains of Mount Yasur, Vanuatu.
 
View the full Portraiture shortlist
 

Street Photography

Giulia Pissagroia captures the distinct expressions of a family admiring the view from Ørnevegen (Eagle Road), Norway.

View the full Street Photography shortlist
 

Travel

Megumi Murakami photographs a dynamic finale of the Abare Festival, showing men leaping into the river amidst fiercely burning torches - believing the more they rage, the more the deity rejoices.
 
View the full Travel shortlist


What's next?

The Open Photographer of the Year will be announced on 16 April at the Awards ceremony in London. Their work will be showcased at the major exhibition at Somerset House from 17 April – 4 May. Tickets go on sale on 26 February.

To view the Open shortlists, click here.

To be amongst the first to know when tickets to the Sony World Photography Awards 2026 exhibition go on sale, register your interest here.