Final night time, April sixteenth, Sony introduced the winners and shortlist of its 2026 World Pictures Awards. Now into their nineteenth 12 months, Sony’s World Pictures Awards (WPA) rejoice and award current and new photographic expertise, giving its winners a world platform to showcase their work (to not point out money prizes and a sack of Sony imaging gear).
This 12 months, the WPAs acquired over 430,000 entrants from 200 nations the world over, making this one among (if not the) largest images competitors round.
The flagship award — the equal of ‘Greatest Actor / Actress’ on the Oscars, for those who like — is Photographer of the 12 months. This 12 months is has been scooped up by Citlali Fabián, a London-based visible artist initially from the Yalalteca Indigenous group, Mexico, whose work explores the intersections of id with territory, migration and group.
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One among Citlali Fabián’s successful photographs. (Picture credit score: © Citlali Fabián, Mexico, Photographer of the 12 months, Skilled Competitors, Inventive, Sony World Pictures Awards 2026)
The 2026 ‘Excellent Contribution to Pictures’ award — a lifetime achievement kinda deal — goes to legendary American avenue/documentary photographer Joel Meyerowitz. A pioneer of coloration images, Joel was at Floor Zero to doc the aftermath of the World Commerce Middle assaults on 9/11 — a visceral and haunting assortment that concurrently highlights the heroism and humanistic components of the tragedy and cleanup.
The WPAs award an additional 10 skilled classes, although, every with a winner and two runners up. Not solely that, however Sony and the WPA additionally foster the following technology of photographic expertise by pupil and youth classes, plus an open class for anybody to enter.
One among Seungho Kim’s successful photographs. (Picture credit score: © Seungho Kim, Republic Of Korea, Winner, Skilled Competitors, Views, Sony World Pictures Awards 2026)
I’ve included a few of my favourite photographs from this 12 months’s finalists and winners, however a full gallery of all of the competitors photographs are all seen on the World Pictures Awards web site.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Class
Winner
Photographer of the 12 months
Citlali Fabián (Mexico)
Structure & Design
Pleasure Saha (Bangladesh)
Documentary
Santiago Mesa (Colombia)
Atmosphere
Isadora Romero (Ecuador)
Panorama
Dafna Talmor (U.Ok.)
Views
Seungho Kim (Republic of Korea)
Portraiture
Jean-Marc Caimi & Valentina Piccinni (Italy)
Sport
Todd Antony (New Zealand)
Nonetheless Life
Vilma Taubo (Norway)
Wildlife & Nature
Will Burrard-Lucas (U.Ok.)
Open
Elle Leontiev (Australia)
Scholar
Jubair Ahmed Arnob (Bangladesh)
Youth
Philip Kangas (Sweden)
Excellent Contribution to Pictures
Joel Meyerowitz (U.S.)
London exhibition
A collection by Hayate Kurisu, runner up within the Views class. (Picture credit score: © Hayate Kurisu, Japan, Skilled / Views, 2nd Place, Sony World Pictures Awards 2026)
If, like me, you’re fortunate sufficient to be in London in mid-April, you too can take a look at the World Pictures Awards exhibition, which runs from April 17 to Could 4 2026 at Somerset Home, London (tickets accessible through the hyperlink).
The exhibition will showcase over 300 entries from this 12 months’s awards. I used to be given early entry to the exhibition to see the entries, and it’s a unbelievable showcase. The expertise on show is phenomenal. My favourite collection is by Seungho Kim, winner of the Views class. His work paperwork his and his spouse’s lives after having an surprising little one, with a specific deal with how the household canine adjusted, and eventually made associates with the child.
(Picture credit score: © Seungho Kim, Korea, Republic Of, Winner, Skilled Competitors, Views, Sony World Pictures Awards 2026)
I’ve interviewed many photographers in my time as a journalist, seen many exhibitions, and clearly gazed intently at many photographs. I do know full effectively that many photographers shoot intentionally with a last printed product in thoughts. There’s nothing like a picture in giant printed format, in exactly the best way the artist needed it to be seen. It at all times beats digital in my ebook.
No Sony? No downside
If you happen to’re impressed by this 12 months’s awards — both the net gallery or bodily exhibition — you may get concerned in 2027’s competitors, which is able to open on June 1 2026.
Importantly, whereas Sony hosts the WPA, there’s completely no stipulation for entries to be shot on a Sony digital camera. You don’t have to be rocking the most recent, biggest Sony A7V to enter subsequent 12 months’s competitors — perhaps you’re rocking a humble Canon EOS R100 or, like me, a several-year-old Fujifilm X-E4. In reality, I talked to numerous the entrants on this 12 months’s awards, and even lots of the professionals shoot with different manufacturers. Will Burrard-Lucas, winner of the Wildlife & Nature class, shoots on no matter previous DSLRs he can discover to jerry rig into traps or cell recording units (he actually straps cameras to RC vehicles to get shut up wide-angle photographs of hyenas!)
And that’s cool: it means you don’t want costly gear to participate within the occasion. Keep in mind, nice imagery has extra to do with the photographer than the digital camera.
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