Beauty everywhere: Take a look at the winners of the 2025 Sony World Photography Awards

A frenzied crowd breathing like one body over a basketball game in the United States. A meticulous and quite claustrophobic view of a street vendor selling electronic parts in Japan’s Akihabara Electric Town. An Icelandic sea of burning red lava that could well be what John Milton imagined when he described Pandæmonium.

These are just a few of the stunning images captured by the category winners and finalists of the 2025 Sony World Photography Awards Open competition.

The competition, now in its 18th year, is open to all members of the public and “celebrates the ability of an individual photograph to capture and distil a singular moment, and to evoke a broader narrative.” Categories include “Landscape” and “Travel” but also “Portraiture” and “Motion”, ensuring a wide variety of submissions, from personal stories to spectacular visual creations.

The overall Open Photographer of the Year will be revealed on 16 April 2025 and will receive a $5,000 prize. Category winners will go on display from 17 April to 5 May 2025 as part of an exhibition at Somerset House in London.

For now, let’s take a look at some of the most striking images of this year’s category winners and finalists.