World’s best single images revealed by the 2018 Sony World Photography Awards

● Winners of the 10 Open categories, plus all 63 National Awards announced today

● Huge diversity of genres and topics across the global winners

● Images available at www.worldphoto.org/press

EMBARGOED UNTIL 00.01 GMT ON TUESDAY 20 March: Selected from hundreds of thousands of

entries worldwide, the winners of the Open competition and National Awards of the 2018 Sony

World Photography Awards are announced today.

The 10 Open category winners were chosen by an expert panel of judges as the world’s very best

single photographs, and the National Awards winners selected as the strongest single image taken

by a local photographer across nearly 70 countries. The winning works and their photographers are

truly international, with images coming from Australia, Argentina, Cambodia, China, Kenya, Saudi

Arabia and beyond.

Subject matter across the photographs could also not have been more diverse. Photographers chose

a variety of stunning landscapes, personal portraits, touching encounters and sporting moments as

their inspiration.

Chair of judges Zelda Cheatle comments: “Judging the Open competition and National Awards

allowed me to discover high calibre international work of great interest. In choosing the winners, the

images all had to have something special - whether it be composition, impact, skill, a portrayal of a

unique event or informing in a new way. Above all else, each winner had to be an exceptional

photograph.”

All Open category and National Award winners receive the latest digital imaging equipment from

Sony. In addition, the winning work will be published in the 2018 Awards’ book and shown at the

Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition in London from April 20 – May 6.

The ten Open category winners will now go on to compete for the Open Photographer of the Year ,

winning $5,000 (USD). This photographer, along with the Professional categories winners, will be

announced in London on April 19.

Produced by the World Photography Organisation, the Sony World Photography Awards is the

world’s most diverse photography competition. The 11th edition saw a record breaking 320,000

submissions by photographers from more than 200 countries and territories, presenting some of the

world’s finest contemporary photography captured over the past year.

Open category winners

Photographers worldwide may enter any of the Open competition’s 10 categories, with judges

looking for the best single image fitting each categories’ brief. Many of the winners are

non-professional photographers, making their achievement even more remarkable.

The Open category winners are:

● Architecture: Andreas Pohl, German with the image The Man and the Mysterious Tower

● Culture: Panos Skordas, Greek with image Young Minotaur

● Enhanced: Klaus Lenzen, German with image Every Breath you Take

● Landscape & Nature: Veselin Atanasov, Bulgarian with image Early Autumn

● Motion: Fajar Kristianto, Indonesian with image The Highest Platform

● Portraiture: Nick Dolding, British with image Emile

● Still Life: Richard Frishman, American with image Sunday Buffet at Jerry Mikeska's BBQ;

Columbus, Texas 2017

● Street Photography: Manuel Armenis, German with image Old Friends

● Travel: Mikkel Beiter, Danish with image Shapes of Lofoten

● Wildlife: Justuna Zduńczyk, Polish with image An Unexpected Meeting

National Awards winners

Running across nearly 70 countries, the National Awards program seeks to recognise and reward the

best single image taken by a local photographer.

The 63 National Award winners can be found in full at:

https://www.worldphoto.org/2018-national-awards

For further information please contact:

Press team, World Photography Organisation

press@worldphoto.org / +44 (0) 20 7886 3043 / 3049

Notes to Editors

All shortlisted and commended images are available to download for publication at

www.worldphoto.org/press

About World Photography Organisation

The World Photography Organisation is a global platform for photography initiatives. Working across more than

180 countries, our aim is to raise the level of conversation around photography by celebrating the best imagery

and photographers on the planet. We pride ourselves on building lasting relationships with both individual

photographers as well as our industry-leading partners around the world. The World Photography Organisation

hosts a year-round portfolio of events including the Sony World Photography Awards, one of the world’s

leading photography competitions, and PHOTOFAIRS, international art fairs dedicated to photography