The winners of the 2022 Sony World Photography Awards have been revealed, spanning a truly stunning array of photographic styles and subjects, from elegantly composed landscapes to surreal street photography.
The massive Song World Photography Awards spans four separate competitions: Professional, Youth, Student, and Open. Perhaps the biggest competition is Open, which looks for the best single image across 10 general categories. This year’s Open competition garnered more than 170,000 individual entries.
“Creativity and originality were very important in choosing a winning image and it was terrific to see the excitement and joy of the photographers when they captured the moment,” said Hideko Kataoka, who spearheaded the judging for this year’s Open competition. “The photographs in this competition each make a coherent visual statement about a situation or particular circumstance in an elegant visual way.”
Unlike the last couple of years which have been unsurprisingly influenced by the global pandemic, the 2022 shortlist is dominated by elegant geometric compositions and uncanny abstractions. Scott Wilson’s Anger Management is a perfect example, winning the Natural World and Wildlife category with an evocative shot of a wild mustang stallion kicking up dust.
More black and white shots dominated the winning entries this year, including Anthony Chan’s Architecture-winning shot of an industrial building in Hong Kong and Vicente Ansola’s spectacular photo of wilted sunflowers in a rural Spanish field.
Dozens more images were shortlisted in each category, creating a fantastic overview of contemporary photography in 2022. Highlights here include a cheekily framed shot of a man in front of a life-sized image of a T-rex from Singapore photographer Kantaya New; a mind-bending shot of a flock of birds forming the shape of a giant bird from James Crombie; and a frightening drone shot of Iceland’s youngest volcano from Luis Manuel Vilariño Lopez.
Take a look through our gallery at more handpicked highlights from this year's shortlist.
Source: World Photography Organization
