“The Anthropocene Illusion” © Zed Nelson, United Kingdom, Photographer of the Year, Professional competition, Wildlife & Nature, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
“The painted backdrop of this chimpanzee enclosure at Shanghai Wild Animal Park in China is impressive in its artistry, but serves to provide a comforting illusion only to human observers. In their natural habitat in the forests of Central Africa, chimpanzees spend most of their days in the treetops. Being one of the most socially complex species among all non-human primates, chimpanzees in the wild live in societies ranging in size between 20 and 150 individuals.
In a tiny fraction of Earth’s history, humans have altered the world beyond anything it has experienced in tens of millions of years. Scientists are calling it a new epoch: The Anthropocene – the age of humans. Future geologists will find evidence in the rock strata of an unprecedented human impact on our planet, from huge concentrations of plastics to the fallout from the burning of fossil fuels, and vast deposits of concrete used to build our cities. We are forcing animals and plants to extinction by removing their habitats and divorcing ourselves from the land we once roamed. Yet we cannot face the true scale of our loss. Somewhere within us the desire for contact with nature remains. ‘So, while we devastate the world around us, we have become masters of a stage-managed, artificial ‘experience’ of nature – a reassuring spectacle, an illusion.’ Over six years, and across four continents, Zed Nelson has explored how we immerse ourselves in increasingly choreographed and simulated environments to mask our destructive impact on the natural world.”
The 2025 Sony World Photography Awards have concluded with the announcement of Zed Smith as the Photographer of the Year 2025. The acclaimed British photographer rose above the other nine winners of the professional categories to nab the top prize for his moving series, “The Anthropocene Illusion.”
This stark look at the human impact on the environment has an interesting twist, with the photographer specifically looking at how we manufacture faux nature settings, shying away from the true, negative impact of human intervention in natural environments.
“Over the last six years, I have explored how we immerse ourselves in choreographed and simulated environments to mask our destructive impact on the natural world—we have become masters of a stage-managed, artificial ‘experience’ of nature,” says Smith. “Projects such as this take extensive research and a very long time to complete—the recognition of this Award really helps to now get the work out into the world and to be able to tell this vital story.”
In addition to Smith's win, nine other category winners were also announced during a special ceremony in London. Standouts include Chantal Pinzi's exploration of India's few female skateboarders and Toby Binder's deeply personal look at intergenerational tension at the border of Northern Ireland, which won the Sports and Documentary Projects categories, respectively.
The overall winners of the Open, Student, and Youth competitions were also honored at the ceremony. France's Olivier Unia won the Open competition, which honors single photographs, for her dynamic photo of a traditional Moroccan tbourida show. Micaela Valdivia Medina of Peru won the Student competition for her moving series of images that look at life inside a women's prison in Chile. And 16-year-old Daniel Dian-Ji Wu of Taiwan was named Youth Photographer of the Year for his striking photo of a skateboarder doing a trick at sunset in Venice Beach.
Scroll down to see more winners and then head to the official website to see the winners and shortlisted entries across all the contests.
The 2025 Sony World Photography Awards have announced the winners of the professional competition.
“Untitled” © Chantal Pinzi, Italy, Winner, Professional competition, Sport, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
“Shradda Gaikwad (18) is originally from Beed, a less developed area in Maharashtra, but now resides in Pune. She stumbled upon skateboarding while delivering lunch to her father, who worked as a security guard at a sports store. She is now a national champion. Here, Shradda is performing a ‘fly out indy grab’ from the bowl at Pune's park, dressed in a white saree.
India, the world's most populous country with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, only has a handful of female skaters. It is here that Shred the Patriarchy comes to life, portraying how – against prejudice and threats – some women have rebelled, balancing on a board and transforming skateboarding into a form of resistance against the patriarchy. Through the art of falling and getting back up, these women challenge stereotypes, fight marginalisation and reclaim public spaces in both urban and rural areas. Many have managed to avoid arranged marriages, while others have gained financial independence and earn respect within their communities by skateboarding. It is with these simple yet revolutionary gestures that young Indian women make the patriarchal system tremble, reclaiming the freedom to imagine something different for themselves: to be a voice and no longer an echo.”
“Divided Youth” © Toby Binder, Germany, Winner, Professional competition, Documentary Projects, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
“‘If I had been born at the top of my street, behind the corrugated-iron border, I would have been British. Incredible to think. My whole idea of myself, the attachments made to a culture, heritage, religion, nationalism and politics are all an accident of birth. I was one street away from being born my “enemy.”’ Paul McVeigh, Belfast-born novelist. Binder notes ‘there is hardly any other country in Europe where a past conflict is still as present in daily life as it is in Northern Ireland.’ It is not only the physical barriers – the walls and fences – but also the psychological divisions in society. For many years, Toby Binder has been documenting what it means for young people, all of whom were born after the peace agreement was signed, to grow up under this intergenerational tension in both Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods.”
“When Esu Crossed the Atlantic to Support His People” © Gui Christ, Brazil, Winner, Professional competition, Portraiture, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
“A portrait of Afro-Brazilian religious practitioner, Inagê Kaluanã, representing the arrival of the Orixá Exu in Brazil caused by the forced migration of enslaved Yoruba people. Exu is considered the messenger who connects the material world (Aiyê) and the spiritual realm (Òrun), holding profound significance for enslaved communities. It was believed that he could carry their prayers to the divine, offering solace and alleviating their suffering in the face of oppression. Salvador, Brazil.
M’kumba is an ongoing project that illustrates the resilience of Afro-Brazilian communities in the face of local religious intolerance. Its name derives from an ancient Kongo word for spiritual leaders, before it was distorted by local society to demean African religions. For more than 300 years, nearly 5 million African people were brought to Brazil. They lost their freedom, and their spiritualities were persecuted by colonial ideologies. Until 1970, Afro-Brazilian religions were criminalised, and due to longstanding prejudice they still face violence – more than 2,000 attacks were reported in 2024 alone. Although 56 per cent of Brazilians are of Afro-descent, fewer than 2 per cent identify as Afro-religious due to fear of persecution. As an Afro-religious priest in training, Gui Christ wanted to photograph a proud, young generation representing African deities and mythological tales. Through intimate imagery, this project challenges prejudice while celebrating these spiritual traditions as vital to Brazil’s cultural identity.”
“Ronaldo” © Laura Pannack, United Kingdom, Winner, Professional competition, Perspectives, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
” In this complex world we meet characters like Ronaldo and Thabbs, two young transgender teens from the Cape Flats area of Cape Town. We join them as their journeys of self-discovery and renewal unfold in a community shaped by danger and division. For Ronaldo and Thabbs, adolescence is a time of profound rebirth – of shedding old identities and embracing the truth of who they are, providing them with strength and purpose.
Making our way home from school is a simple, nostalgic, universal activity that we can all relate to. This project explores the tumultuous public lives of young people in the gang-governed Cape Flats area of Cape Town, South Africa, where their daily commute carries the risk of death. Using handmade, lo-fi experimental techniques, this project explores how young people have to walk to and from school avoiding the daily threat of gang crossfire. Through poetry, analogue photography, drawings, collages and cyanotypes, an intimate portrayal of adolescence amidst stark social divides is created that offers a rare insight into this confusing and challenging world.”
The professional competition awards outstanding photography series.
“Washing Fibers” © Nicolás Garrido Huguet, Peru, Winner, Professional competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
“Dionisia, Nilda, and Braulia washing the recently dyed fibres in the lake. A unique aspect of natural dyes is their harmony with the ecosystem; chemical dyes would release toxic substances into the lake, but natural dyes integrate seamlessly with the environment, preserving its balance.
Alquimia Textil is a collaborative project undertaken by Nicolás Garrido Huguet and researcher and fashion designer María Lucía Muñoz , which showcases the natural dyeing techniques practiced by the artisans of Pumaqwasin in Chinchero, Cusco, Peru. The project aims to bring visibility to, and help preserve, these ancestral dyeing practices, which demand many hours of meticulous work that is often underestimated within the textile sector. Industrial methods are close to displacing these traditional dyeing processes completely, while climate change threatens the plants that are crucial to these practices. These photographs feature three dye types: qolle (Buddleja coriacea), a shrub with yellow-producing flowers; ch’illka (Baccharis sp.), a shrub whose leaves and stems yield ochre and green hues; and cochineal (Dactylopius coccus), an Andean insect producing reds, carmines and purples in a broad color spectrum.”
“Preflight, Baikonur Cosmodrome” © Rhiannon Adam, United Kingdom, Winner, Professional competition, Creative, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
“Soyuz MS-20 on the pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, 7 December 2021. This image was taken the night before Yusaku Maezawa, dearMoon’s leader and funder, was sent to the International Space Station to spend 12 days there alongside Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin and his assistant Yozo Hirano. The dearMoon crew had been notified of their inclusion in the project one month earlier, with the public announcement occurring on the first anniversary of the MS-20 flight.
Series Description: Throughout history, 117 billion humans have gazed at the same moon, yet only 24 people – all American men – have seen its surface up close. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the artist discovered an application for the ultimate art residency: dearMoon. In 2018, Japanese billionaire and art collector Yusaku Maezawa announced a global search for eight artists to join him on a week-long lunar mission aboard SpaceX’s Starship – the first civilian mission to deep space. The mission's flight path would echo that of Apollo 8’s 1968 journey, which famously led astronaut Bill Anders to suggest NASA ‘should have sent poets’ to capture the sense of wonder he experienced. In 2021, Rhiannon Adam was chosen as the only female crew member from one million applicants, with the chance to achieve the seemingly impossible. For three years she immersed herself in the space industry, until, in June 2024, Maezawa abruptly cancelled the mission, leaving the crew to pick up the pieces of their disrupted lives.”
“Circle of Life” © Peter Franck, Germany, Winner, Professional competition, Still Life, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
These images depict the liminal space between events, a threshold where time seems to stretch, and meanings remain unfixed. The juxtaposition of objects within the space leaves room for interpretation, inviting surreal flights of thoughts. Everything suspended, held in a fragile equilibrium where intervention feels imminent. Fractions of a second away from decisive action, the images linger in a fleeting moment of stillness, a breath before the world moves again.”
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“Nishisando by Sou Fujimoto” © Ulana Switucha, Canada, Winner, Professional competition, Architecture & Design, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
“The Tokyo Toilet Project is an urban redevelopment project in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan that involves the design and construction of modern public restrooms that encourages their use. The distinctive buildings are as much works of art as they are a public convenience. These images are part of a larger body of work documenting the architectural aesthetics of these structures in their urban environment.”
“Urbanisation” © Seido Kino, Japan, Winner, Professional competition, Landscape, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
“Fukuyama City of Hiroshima Prefecture was chosen by Nippon Kokan Corporation as the construction site for a new steelwork facility. At the time, it was fashionable for provincial cities to invite corporations to and set up their factories. Fukuyama City was successful, but some local people were unhappy about the changes to the landscape. This photograph is combined with an archival image provided by Takayoshi Nagai.
This project invites viewers to consider what it means for a country to grow, and the advantages and disadvantages linked to that growth, by overlaying archival photographs from the 1940s-60s within current scenes of the same location. Early in Japan’s period of rapid economic growth from 1945 to 1973, the trade-off for affluence was pollution in many parts of the country. As an island, its land and resource constraints also led to an uneven population distribution. The issues found in contemporary society are often the result of past activities, and there is a need to look at them closely. Fortunately, the photographer notes that ‘the Japanese are known for their love of photography, and many citizens have captured images of their country over time’. This documentation can help others look at growth and think about how to prevent problems from reoccurring.”
The incredible overall winners of the Youth, Student, and Open competitions were also revealed.
“Tbourida La Chute” © Olivier Unia, France, Open Photographer of the Year, Open Competition, Motion, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
“Many of the photographs taken during a traditional Moroccan ‘tbourida’ show the riders firing their rifles. With this image, the photographer wanted to share another side of the event, and show how dangerous it can be when a rider is thrown from their mount.”
“Internal Courtyard” © Micaela Valdivia Medina, Peru, Student Photographer of the Year, Student Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
“One of the internal patios at Valparaíso Women's Penitentiary Center.
This project explores the complexity of female prison spaces and the people who inhabit them, from the inmates to their families. The series consists of photographs of the architecture of the prisons, the neighborhoods they are in, and the dynamics at the visitor and family member entrances. This project was carried out at the women's penitentiary centres of San Miguel, San Joaquín and Valparaíso, between the months of March and July 2024.”
“Eclipse of Motion” © Daniel Dian-Ji Wu, Taiwan, Youth Photographer of the Year, Youth Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025
“Daniel Dian-Ji Wu took this photo during summer break in 2024, at Venice Beach Skatepark in LA during golden hour. The photographer captured this image of a skater mid-air, silhouetted against the sunset, expressing the raw energy of that moment. He says this image ‘made me feel a sense of passion and freedom.’”
