Sony World Photography Awards has recently revealed stunning shortlisted and commended photos from their 2018 competition. They reached the record-breaking number of submissions, with nearly 320,000 images from all over the world. That’s a whopping a 40% increase in entries compared to the previous year, and I’m sure the judges had a difficult task of making the selection of the best photos. In this article, take a look at some of the best images that compete for the title of Photographer of the Year.
The participants submitted the images to four competitions: Professional, Open, Youth and Student Focus. Within the Professional competition, there are 10 categories:
- Architecture
- Contemporary Issues
- Creative
- Current Affairs & News
- Discovery
- Landscape
- Natural World
- Portraiture
- Sport
- Still life
The Open competition also includes ten categories, and they are:
- Architecture
- Culture
- Enhanced
- Motion
- Landscape and Nature
- Portraiture
- Still Life
- Street photography
- Travel
- Wildlife
Each category contains 10 shortlisted and 50 commended images. The shortlisted photos show great variety, including “stylish images of humanity’s obsession with wealth to raw images of the Rohingya refugee crisis, through to quirky portraits of dogs and their owners.”
The shortlisted photos in Professional and Open contests are competing to become category winners, and each of the photographers has a chance to be selected as Photographer of the Year. The overall prize is worth $25,000 USD and Open Photographer of the Year title will earn the photographer $5,000 USD. Student Focus competition winner will win €30,000 ($37,000 USD) of Sony digital imaging equipment for their university.
Overall winners will be revealed on 19 April 2018 (23.00 GMT) and a specially curated exhibition will take place April 20 – May 6 at Somerset House, London. In the meantime, enjoy some of the shortlisted photos from the contest. Make sure to visit the website of Sony World Photography Awards and check out plenty more beautiful photos.

© Chaoyang Cai (China), Shortlist, Open, Architecture (Open competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Kaleb White (USA) Shortlist, Professional, Natural World & Wildlife (2018 Professional competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Andrew Quilty (Australia), Shortlist, Professional, Portraiture (Professional competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Fredrik Lerneryd (Sweden), Shortlist, Professional, Contemporary Issues (Professional competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Krister Sørbø (Norway), Shortlist, Professional, Portraiture (Professional competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Ana Amado (Spain), Shortlist, Professional, Contemporary Issues (Professional competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Lauren Greenfield (USA), Shortlist, Professional, Contemporary Issues (Professional competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Sasha Maslov (Ukraine), Shortlist, Professional, Portraiture (Professional competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Anush Babajanyan (Armenia), Shortlist, Professional, Portraiture (Professional competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Eduardo Castaldo (Italy), Shortlist, Professional, Creative (Professional competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Asha Miles (Russian Federation), Shortlist, Professional, Current Affairs & News (Professional competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Manish Mamtani (India), Shortlist, Open, Travel (Open competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Nick Dolding (United Kingdom), Shortlist, Open, Portraiture (Open competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Neil Aldridge (South Africa), Shortlist, Professional, Natural World & Wildlife (2018 Professional competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Iona Francis (New Zealand), Shortlist, Youth, Your Environment (2018 Youth competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Andrius Kundrotas (Lithuania), Shortlist, Open, Landscape & Nature (2018 Open competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Zongyi Lin (China), Shortlist, Open, Culture (Open competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Yonathan Kellerman (Canada), Shortlist, Open, Motion (Open competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Zhaoting Wu (China), Shortlist, Open, Architecture (Open competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Tom Way (United Kingdom) Shortlist, Open, Wildlife (Open competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Wenjie Qiao (USA), Shortlist, Open, Enhanced (Open competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Richard Winston (USA), Shortlist, Open, Travel (Open competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Jassen Todorov (USA), Shortlist, Open, Architecture (Open competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Andreas Pohl (Germany), Shortlist, Open, Architecture (Open competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

© Fajar Kristianto (Indonesia), Shortlist, Open, Motion (Open competition), 2018 Sony World Photography Awards
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