Talented photographers from across the world have been named as winners of diverse open categories at the Sony World Photography Awards -- and the champions were judged on just a single image.
Faced with hundreds of thousands of entries, the judges have chosen a winner for each of the 10 categories that include architecture, culture and landscape.
Also announced were the winners of the National Awards. Chosen from the same pool of images as the open competition, the National Award recognises the best entrant from each of 62 countries.
The 10 open category winners will now go on to compete for the title of Open Photographer of the Year.
(Please click on the images to view in full-screen)
Untitled: A street drama performing by a local young boy. People are enjoying watching him pour flammable liquids inside his mouth and setting fire it during the performance.
Photograph: ©Joydeep Mukherjee/2019 Sony World Photography Awards
Untitled: Father and son dressed as ghost at the festival of gongs in Tay Nguyen, Vietnam.
Photograph: ©Khanh Phan/2019 Sony World Photography Awards
Fish Eyes: A creative experiment of a conceptual portrait. Photograph: ©Hardijanto Budyman/2019 Sony World Photography Awards
Complexion or Condemnation? What does it take to be deemed beautiful? Is it the never-ending list of stereotypically perfect features, or the rigorous effort to hide under thick layers of powder and paint? Does the trick really lie in society’s perspective of how a human being should look? No. Happiness does not linger in other people’s acceptance of one’s appearance. Did a pointed nose or fair skin ever give another person a reason to smile or shower them with love? It is the light that lies underneath which defines a person and clings on to them throughout a lifetime.
Photograph: ©Farida Alam/Sony World Photography Awards
Dance in the subway of Santiago de Chile: Image taken in the subway of Santiago, Región Metropolitana, Chile.
Photograph: ©Maria Paz Morales/2019 Sony World Photography Awards
Harmony: Shot underwater in Hawaii, this image is part of my Muses Colllection. What started to work best for me was having a perspective from outside of the water, looking in and using the surface of a pool as a canvas, utilising natural effects like the refraction of light with movement to bend reality, and shooting at night so I could really control my light.
Photograph: ©Christy Lee Rogers/2019 Sony World Photography Awards
Red fishing net making: This photo shows a Vietnamese woman wearing a conical hat making red nets by hand in a traditional way. I took this photo in a fishing village near Nha Trang.
Photograph: ©Master Na/2019 Sony World Photography Awards
Dreamers and Warriors: “Whether you are physically male or female, strong or weak, ill or healthy - all those things matter less than what your heart contains. If you have the soul of a warrior, you are a warrior. All those other things are the glass that contains the lamp, but you are the light inside. We should never stop following our dreams, fighting for our ideals and protecting our visions which are all symbolised by the animals captured in this series.”
Photograph: ©Martin Stranka/2019 Sony World Photography Awards
Underwater Gannets: Whilst on a trip to Shetland, the biggest thing I wanted to do was photograph the gannets as they feed underwater. The photography takes place at sea around some of Shetland’s remotest headlands. Dead bait is used, using fish the Gannets would normally eat, locally sourced around Shetland. To be able to capture what goes on under the water was an unbelievable experience and one I will never forget.
Photograph: ©Tracey Lund/2019 Sony World Photography Awards
Fire Landscape: Heroic work of the firefighters of Mexicali Baja California Mexico attending a gigantic fire of a recycling plant fire that took place on July 6, 2018. The image I took when approaching the place where the firefighters were working had the objective of demonstrating just how difficult this profession is.
Photograph: ©Victor Medina Gorosave/2019 Sony World Photography Awards
Agony & Ecstasy: Wide open mouth of a male sea lion.
Photograph: ©Pedro Jarque Krebs/ 2019 Sony World Photography Awards
Winning the championship: Fengshun Puzhai Huolong is a traditional folk culture activity in Meizhou, Guangdong. It consists of three parts: burning fire tree (burning tobacco rack), burning Yumen (squid jumping dragon gate) and burning fire dragon. It has a history of 300 years. “Puzhai Fire Dragon” is made up of wire, bamboo, paper, etc, painted with scales, horns and claws, and the dragon head to the dragon tail is several tens of metres long. There are thousands of fireworks, firecrackers and rockets installed on the dragon. There are countless guns in the dragon head and dragon tail. A fire dragon consists of thirty or forty young shirtless young hands, plus drummers, lobsters, goldfish and other people, the entire team of more than 200 people.
Photograph: ©Kwan Wai Pang/Sony World Photography Awards
Wild Meal: It is fun to meet wild animals on your journey. In the southern part of England, the pony at New ForestNational Park was eating grass all day. They were eating grass all the time until the sun was falling out, waiting for me waiting to take a picture of raising my face.
Photograph: ©Kenichiro Hagiwara/2019 Sony World Photography Awards
The Face: Indoor, natural light, art portrait.
Photograph: ©Ruslan Bolgov/2019 Sony World Photography Awards
Stumps: Stumps exposed from the water levels on the manmade Alder lake on the Nisqually River Dam, Washington.
Photograph: ©Hal Gage/2019 Sony World Photography Awards
The Harvest: I got stung by one of the largest bees in the world and I had already killed almost 7 or 8 bees by the time when I notice hunters around me calmly picking those bees off their body and throwing them away. They didn’t kill them. They just removed them from their body as soon as they sat on them. I didn’t ask why but understood the purpose we were there. We were there for harvesting the wild honey from the hives of Himalayan bees. The intention was not to kill. That’s why they put fire. That fire was not just to avoid the bee sting but to fend off the larger population of bees so that the hunters could harvest the honey without causing much damage to them.
Photograph: © Dikpal Thapa/Sony World Photography Awards
Peony and Leaves: This is a photograph of my resin artwork. Using self-made paint mixed with resin to capture colours in liquefaction and also in petrifaction form. It looks like an abstract flower garden. I hope this piece can remind everyone ‘Don’t just take, give!’ And always appreciate and be thankful for the people that helped and supported you unconditionally.
Photograph: ©Rachel Yee Laam Lai/2019 Sony World Photography Awards
Untitled: Dismantling the old Anton Bruckner University in Linz, Austria.
Photograph: ©Simon Bauer/Sony World Photography Awards
Canoe in the dark: We met Thomas with his canoe the night before when we noticed him sailing in the dark on a lake where we were timelapsing. The day after he was parked next to us and we asked him if we could shoot him once more. We drove to a more remote location and took every light we had with us to try and light up the forest around the gorge. He had built his own lights to put those in the water and make it look transparent. Shot at Walchenklamm, Germany when it was raining in the middle of the night. Photograph: ©Jasper Lefevre/2019 Sony World Photography Awards
Sisters: Ivanovo village, Serbia. Photograph: ©Ranko Djurovic/2019 Sony World Photography Awards
