Three Australians – Antoine Veling, Craig McGowan and Adrian Guerin – are among the winners in the Open competition, with five shortlisted in this year’s competitions.

Winner of the Photographer of the Year title in this year’s Sony World Photography Awards was Pablo Albarenga (Uruguay) for his series Seeds of Resistance, which pairs photographs of landscapes and territories in danger from mining and agribusinesses with portraits of the activists fighting to conserve them. © Pablo Albarenga.

The winning photographers in the Professional competition have been selected by a panel of expert judges, for submitting an outstanding body of work of five to ten images, ranging from personal subjects and observations, to headline news and little known but critical issues. This year’s winners are:

Architecture: Sandra Herber (Canada) for her series Ice Fishing Huts, Lake Winnipeg

Creative: Pablo Albarenga (Uruguay) for his series Seeds of Resistance

Discovery: Maria Kokunova (Russian Federation) for her series The Cave

Documentary: Chung Ming Ko (Hong Kong SAR) for his series Wounds of Hong Kong

Environment: Robin Hinsch (Germany) for his series Wahala

Landscape: Ronny Behnert (Germany) for his series Torii

Natural World & Wildlife: Brent Stirton (South Africa) for his series Pangolins in Crisis

Portraiture: Cesar Dezfuli (Spain) for his series Passengers

Sport: Ángel López Soto (Spain) for his series Senegalese Wrestlers

Still Life: Alessandro Gandolfi (Italy) for his series Immortality, Inc.

The Open competition celebrates the power of single images. Ovberall winner in this competition was a black & white portrait of Pixies frontman Charles Thompson (aka Black Francis), originally taken for MOJO Magazine by Tom Oldham (UK). Category winners are as follows:
Architecture: Rosaria Sabrina Pantano, Italy

Creative: Suxing Zhang, China Mainland

Culture: Antoine Veling, Australia

Landscape: Craig McGowan, Australia

Motion: Alec Connah, United Kingdom

Natural World & Wildlife: Guofei Li, China Mainland

Portraiture: Tom Oldham, United Kingdom

Still Life: Jorge Reynal, Argentina

Street Photography: Santiago Mesa, Colombia

Travel: Adrian Guerin, Australia

Overall winner of the Youth Competition was Hsien-Pang Hsieh, Taiwan Region and overall winner of the Student Competition was Ioanna Sakellaraki, Greece (Royal College of Art UK).

Click here to visit the online winners’ galleries.