A spectacular collection of images kick off the 2022 Sony World Photography Awards, with the National & Regional Awards announcement spanning everything from daring drone shots and gorgeous animal portraits to transcendent cityscapes.
In its 15th year, the Sony World Photography Awards has delivered a compelling snapshot of global contemporary photography from a massive 340,000 image submissions. This first wave of award winners focuses on the best single shots from 61 countries.
Each National & Regional Award is selected from the Open category in the competition. The Open category is free for all to enter and spans 10 thematic categories. This year’s Open competition attracted more than 170,000 entries.
Highlights from this year’s exceptional crop include Yih Chang Chew’s aerial shot of the Penang Bridge highway. Winning the Malaysian national award, the image cleverly frames the shot to resemble a horizontal Eiffel Tower.
Winning the top shot for Iceland is a frightening snap from Viktor Einar Vilhelmsson that frames a tiny figure strapped to the edge of a cliff watching massive glaciers fall to the ground.
Other highlights include Jenny Zhao winning the top United States shot for a lovely snap of a polar bear cub, a beautifully timed snap of a bike in Vietnam leaving a trail of flowers, and a dynamic image of two sumo wrestlers flying out of a ring.
Take a look through our gallery at more impressive shots from this batch of National & Regional winners in the Sony World Photography Awards.
Source: World Photography Organization