The Exceptional Winners of the Sony World Photography Awards 2026

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a person in a metallic suit stands on a volcanic landscape; a woman with braids holds her belly and looks up; a person in water holds a bunch of colorful inflatable fish balloons.

The Sony World Photography Awards announced the four overall winners of its 2026 competition, including the prestigious “Photographer of the Year” title for the Professional category winner. The competition also revealed the 10 category winners of its Professional competition.

Photographer of the Year 2026

Mexican photographer Citlali Fabián has been named “Photographer of the Year 2026” for the series “Bilha, Stories of my Sisters.” Fabián also won first place in the “Creative” category.

Fabián is a visual artist from the Yalalteca Indigenous community in Mexico, currently based in London. Fabián’s winning project uses photography to examine and analyze identity and how it connects to location, migration, and community.

A woman with long braided hair stands outdoors, gazing upward. She cradles her pregnant belly and is surrounded by artistic dashed circles and small illustrated bees. The background features leafy trees in soft light.

A woman in traditional dress stands in a garden. Over the black-and-white photo, white line drawings of leaves and two human figures are superimposed, along with light blue dotted designs on the ground.

“Through her work, Citlali Fabián reflects on urgent questions of visibility and representation. In many Indigenous cultures, stories are told collectively, shaped by conversation and lived experience rather than by a single voice. Fabián brings this spirit into her photographic practice by working closely with each woman she portrays,” says Chair of the 2026 Professional Jury, Monica Allende.

“Her subjects are not simply photographed, they are active participants in shaping how their stories are told. Through this process, the artist highlights the presence, strength, and achievements of women who have often been overlooked, giving them the visibility and recognition they have long deserved within the wider social and cultural landscape,” Allende continues.

A woman stands by a river with one fist raised, wearing a skirt and t-shirt. Superimposed are ethereal, hand-drawn figures also raising their fists, creating an empowering, dreamlike effect. Trees and water fill the background.

A woman in traditional dress stands on a wooden bridge in a forest, raising her arms as if conducting. Around her, pink line drawings of musical notes and musicians playing instruments are superimposed on the photo.

For the victory, Fabián wins a $25,000 cash prize, plus a Sony Digital Imaging equipment kit and the chance to have a solo showcase at next year’s Sony World Photography Awards 2027 exhibition.

Professional Category Winners

Photographers entered a series of images across 10 categories in the 2026 Professional competition. The finalists were revealed last month, and the category winners were announced today at the Sony World Photography Awards gala tonight. One photo from each of the winning photographers is presented below, and the full series of winning shots is available to view on the Sony World Photography Awards website. Since Fabián, the Photographer of the Year 2026, also won the “Creative” category, that category is not featured below.

Architecture and Design

Aerial view of a small village with metal-roofed houses and greenery on an island surrounded by muddy floodwaters. The buildings are clustered closely together in a rectangular area.

Documentary Projects

A person in camouflage uniform with butterfly tattoos on their hands holds a rifle across their lap, showing details of the tattoos, gold bracelet, and rifle magazine.

Environment

A group of people sits together in a foggy, dense forest surrounded by tall trees and flowering purple orchids, creating a mysterious and lush atmosphere.

Landscape

A rocky seashore photo appears fragmented and layered with jagged, torn edges and dark borders separating each piece, creating an abstract, collage-like effect over the ocean landscape.

Perspectives

A young child and a fluffy brown dog both look intently at a sunny-side-up egg cooking in a black skillet placed on a bright yellow table.

Portraiture

A woman with long blonde dreadlocks wears a dramatic white ruffled dress, standing outdoors in a city square on a sunny day, with historic buildings and a blue sky in the background.

Sport

A person wearing a helmet and jacket sits on a saddled horse in an open landscape with distant mountains under a cloudy sky. The image is in black and white.

Still Life

A bright yellow inflatable pool float shaped like a duck, with a smiling face, set against a plain white background.

Wildlife and Nature

A rhinoceros stands by the edge of a small stream at night, surrounded by dense, lush green tropical plants and overhanging palm fronds.

Open Photographer of the Year 2026

Unlike the Professional competition, where photographers enter a series of five to 10 photos, the Open competition celebrates the single image. The Sony World Photography Awards announced the Open competition category winners and finalists back in February, but that still left an overall winner to be crowned.

A person in a shiny silver protective suit stands barefoot on a rock in a barren, dark volcanic landscape, holding a helmet, with a misty mountain and cloudy sky in the background.

This year’s winner is photographer Elle Leontiev from Australia for the photo, “The Barefoot Volcanologist,” which also won the Portraiture category. Leontiev wins a $5,000 cash prize and a Sony imaging kit.

“In 2018 I stood in a London gallery at the Sony World Photography Awards exhibition and dreamed of being featured. Years later, my dream has become real,” Leontiev says. “Seeing my work win has filled me with overwhelming gratitude and tears of joy. It’s a reminder that quiet dreams, nurtured and pursued with heart, can come true.”

Student Photographer of the Year 2026

This year, students in photography and art programs around the world competed to deliver the best photos for the brief, “Together.” Different budding photographers tackled this fairly open-ended concept in vastly different ways.

A brown horse stands on grass in the foreground while many people swim and play in a large body of water behind it, with amusement park rides, buildings, and power lines in the distance under a blue sky.

A family of four stands in tall green grass with city buildings in the background. The father holds a young child, while the mother, wearing a blue hijab, holds another child. The sky is overcast.

A person standing knee-deep in water holds a large bunch of colorful, cartoon-shaped balloons, obscuring their face and upper body, with greenery and distant buildings in the background.

The jury determined that student photographer Jubair Ahmed Arnob, from Counter Foto — A Center for Visual Arts, in Bangladesh, did it the best. Arnob’s series, “The Place Where I Used to Play,” showcases the changing landscape of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and how people are navigating the rapidly changing urban environment together.

“Winning the Sony World Photography Award feels like a dream come true — years of passion, memories, and stories finally being seen and recognized. It fills me with gratitude, joy, and a renewed drive to keep capturing the world through my lens,” says Arnob.

Youth Photographer of the Year 2026

The Sony World Photography Awards’ Youth competition invited photographers aged 19 and under to share their best photos from the past year. 16-year-old Swedish photographer Philip Kangas came out on top with the photo, “Saving History From the Flames,” which shows a pair of firefighters rescuing artwork from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm during a fire.

Two firefighters stand in front of a fire truck, carefully carrying a large framed painting of a nude figure. Emergency equipment is on the ground nearby, and police officers are visible in the background.

“I was very surprised when I heard that I was a winner in this year’s Sony World Photography Awards,” Kangas says. “I am very happy, as it gives confirmation to my hard work.”

Outstanding Contribution to Photography

As the Sony World Photography Awards announced in November, celebrated photographer Joel Meyerowitz is being honored this year with the Sony World Photography Awards Outstanding Contribution to Photography Award.

An older, bald man with a serious expression, wearing a dark jacket and a light gray scarf, stands against a plain, softly lit background.

A retro Dairy Land diner glows with yellow lights at dusk, featuring a large Coca-Cola sign and a menu board. Classic cars are parked outside under a pink and blue sky.

A selection of Meyerowitz’s work, including excerpts from his “Europa” series, plus two new artist videos, is on display at Somerset House in London as part of the Sony World Photography Awards exhibition.

2026 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition

Alongside the overall winners above, the work of all the finalists and shortlisted photographers across Professional, Open, Student, and Youth competitions is on display at Somerset House in London from April 17 through May 4. For those who cannot make it to the show, the award-winning photographers are all featured on the Sony World Photography Awards website.

Image credits: Sony World Photography Awards. Individual photographers are credited in the image captions.

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