Last night, April 16th, Sony announced the winners and shortlist of its 2026 World Photography Awards. Now into their 19th year, Sony’s World Photography Awards (WPA) celebrate and award existing and new photographic talent, giving its winners an international platform to showcase their work (not to mention cash prizes and a sack of Sony imaging gear).
This year, the WPAs received over 430,000 entrants from 200 countries across the world, making this one of (if not the) largest photography competition around.
The flagship award — the equivalent of ‘Best Actor / Actress’ at the Oscars, if you like — is Photographer of the Year. This year is has been scooped up by Citlali Fabián, a London-based visual artist originally from the Yalalteca Indigenous community, Mexico, whose work explores the intersections of identity with territory, migration and community.
The 2026 ‘Outstanding Contribution to Photography’ award — a lifetime achievement kinda deal — goes to legendary American street/documentary photographer Joel Meyerowitz. A pioneer of color photography, Joel was at Ground Zero to document the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11 — a visceral and haunting collection that simultaneously highlights the heroism and humanistic elements of the tragedy and cleanup.
The WPAs award a further 10 professional categories, though, each with a winner and two runners up. Not only that, but Sony and the WPA also foster the next generation of photographic talent through student and youth categories, plus an open category for anyone to enter.
I've included some of my favorite shots from this year's finalists and winners, but a full gallery of all the competition images are all visible on the World Photography Awards website.
Category |
Winner |
|---|---|
Photographer of the Year |
Citlali Fabián (Mexico) |
Architecture & Design |
Joy Saha (Bangladesh) |
Documentary |
Santiago Mesa (Colombia) |
Environment |
Isadora Romero (Ecuador) |
Landscape |
Dafna Talmor (U.K.) |
Perspectives |
Seungho Kim (Republic of Korea) |
Portraiture |
Jean-Marc Caimi & Valentina Piccinni (Italy) |
Sport |
Todd Antony (New Zealand) |
Still Life |
Vilma Taubo (Norway) |
Wildlife & Nature |
Will Burrard-Lucas (U.K.) |
Open |
Elle Leontiev (Australia) |
Student |
Jubair Ahmed Arnob (Bangladesh) |
Youth |
Philip Kangas (Sweden) |
Outstanding Contribution to Photography |
Joel Meyerowitz (U.S.) |
London exhibition
If, like me, you’re lucky enough to be in London in mid-April, you can also check out the World Photography Awards exhibition, which runs from April 17 to May 4 2026 at Somerset House, London (tickets available via the link).
The exhibition will showcase over 300 entries from this year’s awards. I was given early access to the exhibition to see the entries, and it’s a fantastic showcase. The talent on display is phenomenal. My favorite series is by Seungho Kim, winner of the Perspectives category. His work documents his and his wife's lives after having an unexpected child, with a particular focus on how the family dog adjusted, and finally made friends with the baby.
I’ve interviewed many photographers in my time as a journalist, seen many exhibitions, and obviously gazed intently at many photos. I know full well that many photographers shoot deliberately with a final printed product in mind. There’s nothing like looking at an image in large printed format, in precisely the way the artist wanted it to be seen. It always beats digital in my book.
No Sony? No problem
If you’re inspired by this year’s awards — either the online gallery or physical exhibition — you can get involved in 2027’s competition, which will open on June 1 2026.
Importantly, while Sony hosts the WPA, there’s absolutely no stipulation for entries to be shot on a Sony camera. You don’t need to be rocking the latest, greatest Sony A7V to enter next year’s competition — maybe you’re rocking a humble Canon EOS R100 or, like me, a several-year-old Fujifilm X-E4. In fact, I talked to lots of the entrants in this year's awards, and even many of the pros shoot with other brands. Will Burrard-Lucas, winner of the Wildlife & Nature category, shoots on whatever old DSLRs he can find to jerry rig into traps or mobile recording devices (he literally straps cameras to RC cars to get close up wide-angle photos of hyenas!)
And that’s cool: it means you don’t need expensive gear to take part in the event. Remember, great imagery has more to do with the photographer than the camera.
More from Tom's Guide
- I’ve been using my Fujifilm camera for almost a year and these are the time-saving photography hacks I swear by
- I spent a day shooting on the new Sony A7 V — here are my first impressions (spoiler alert: it's great)
- I swapped out my modern mirrorless for this 20-year-old DSLR — and I’ve never been more creative
