Image description
This photograph was taken in a studio environment in front of a backdrop. The photographer then transformed the portrait into a modern, Renaissance-style image.
Shortlist
Hardijanto Budyman
Ping Pong Club
Ping Pong or Table Tennis is one of my favourite sport since I was a kid. This photo series tells about Ping Pong player's activity in a Club. I try to create the concept looks different & unique to represent my Signature Photography style. The helmet I use as property's costume for the players was inspired by Daft Punk.
© Hardijanto Budyman, Indonesia, Shortlist, Open Competition, Creative, 2025 Sony World Photography Awards
Enda Burke
Sister Mother Flies an Aeroplane
The photographer's mother, dressed as a nun, flying a model aeroplane.
© Enda Burke, Ireland, entry, Professional competition, Creative, 2025 Sony World Photography Awards
Vida Khani
Whisper
This self-portrait was inspired by Zachary Hunter’s poem, To Whisper in Her Ear.
© Vida Khani, Iran, Islamic Republic Of, Shortlist, Open Competition, Creative, 2025 Sony World Photography Awards
Ian Knaggs
Super Crunchy Peanut Butter
This conceptual still-life combines peanuts in shells on bread, with one of them dressed as a pack of butter. The result is an especially crunchy peanut butter sandwich – bon appetit!
© Ian Knaggs, United Kingdom, Commended, Open Competition, Creative, 2025 Sony World Photography Awards
Ana Leal
Fold of Time #3
Dobra do Tempo #3 is part of a series entitled Chão de Histórias (Ground of Stories), in which the photographer explores the relationship between territory and family history. The series combines landscape photographs from the Floresta and Vale do Catimbau regions of north eastern Brazil with landscapes from the family archive, as well as Renaissance lace – a local tradition introduced to Brazil in the 19th century by French nuns and later passed on to indigenous women. The collages establish a continuity of forms between these three ‘materials’, weaving together the past and present.
© Ana Leal, Brazil, Shortlist, Open Competition, Creative, 2025 Sony World Photography Awards
Rachel Nixon
Fading Beauty
This dying tulip was much more interesting to the photographer than a pristine flower in full bloom, thanks to the colours that it had accrued, the twists, turns and textures of the petals, and its multi-directional asymmetry.
© Rachel Nixon, Canada, Commended, Creative, 2025 Sony World Photography Awards
Mobolaji Ogunrosoye
PORTRAITS | ON TWO ZARAS .jpg
This is a collage made using photographs I took and printed on Fabriano Artistico paper, Coffee stained paper, and burnt paper. It is a diptych with each panel comprising 3 layers of the elements described above. The subject is named Zara, whom I met in early 2024, stopped, and asked to photograph. The image is one in a series of portraits in the same style, made to explore distortion within Portraiture, through material manipulation. Aside from distortion, each portrait is created to examine contrasting emotions and expressions within portraiture.
© Mobolaji Ogunrosoye, Nigeria, Commended, Open Competition, Portraiture, 2025 Sony World Photography Awards
Ana Peiró Muñoz
Waggoners Wells
In autumn, Waggoners Wells reserve in Hampshire, UK showcases stunning colours. The photographer was particularly drawn to the colours, textures and reflections of the beech trees on the water; she combined three different exposures to capture a sense of place.
© Ana Peiró Muñoz, United Kingdom, entry, Open Competition, Creative, 2025 Sony World Photography Awards
Marina Tsaregorodtseva
Dancing Queen
This photograph explores connections with others and the vulnerability that shapes our relationships. Created during a time when the photographer longed to be with their family, but couldn’t be, the bending wire serves as a metaphor – an attempt to hold them in their arms, despite the distance.
© Marina Tsaregorodtseva, United Kingdom, Commended, Open Competition, Creative, 2025 Sony World Photography Awards
Yijing Yang
Oneself
This photograph was taken in an abandoned cinema in China. The building had stood for several hundred years before it was destroyed by a fire. The wooden box is used as a transformation of space in a dream.
© Yijing Yang, China Mainland, Shortlist, Open Competition, Creative, 2025 Sony World Photography Awards