Arranged by the World Photography Organization, the annual Open competition selects ‘the best single images in categories such as travel, architecture, and street photography. Here are the winners in different categories.
Architecture
Titled The Blue Window, this photo by Klaus Lenzen (Germany) depicts a ramp of stairs at the Hyatt hotel in Düsseldorf ascending towards a window from which a view of clear blue skies is reflected. It looks as though it is a surreal monolith floating in nothingness.
Picture: 2021 Sony World Photography Awards
Landscape
An image of a solitary tree against a dusky evening sky by Juan López Ruiz (Spain). He captured Electric Storm on Lavender as lighting strikes a flowering field of lavender in Guadalajara, Spain.
Picture: 2021 Sony World Photography Awards
Lifestyle
This photo is by Mariano Belmar Torrecilla (Spain) titled Dias de playa, and depicts a softly focused picture of two women enjoying a morning walk on the beach in Alicante, Spain.
Picture: 2021 Sony World Photography Awards
Motion
This black and white photo is by Marijo Maduna (Croatia) titled Girl Power. It records the moment when a woman dives off a cliff on the island of Lokrum near Dubrovnik, Croatia, while her friends stand-by and watch.
Picture: 2021 Sony World Photography Awards
Creative
Tamary Kudita’s (Zimbabwe) photo titled African Victorian is a portrait of a young black woman dressed in Victorian dress and holding traditional Shona cooking utensils. It probes at “stereotypical contextualizing of the black female body and offers an alternative visual language through which a multifaceted African identity is presented.”
Picture: 2021 Sony World Photography Awards
Travel
This photo is by Khanh Phan (Vietnam) titled Drying Fish. A lone woman surrounded by hundreds of trays of drying fish in the Long Hai fish market in Ba Ria – Vung Tau, Vietnam. Taken from above the pattern, of the fish in trays resembles a large piece of fabric with the woman seemingly weaving it all together.
Portraiture
Titled Son by Lyudmila Sabanina (Russian Federation), it features a young child. He is sitting on a table while gazing into space, lost in contemplation. This shows another side to childhood, one of calmness and reflection.
Picture: 2021 Sony World Photography Awards
Natural World and Wildlife
This adorable photo is by Cristo Pihlamäe (Estonia) titled Little Kiss. It is “an amusing picture of a hare looking out into the field with its tongue sticking out.”
Picture: 2021 Sony World Photography Awards
Street Photography
F. Dilek Uyar (Turkey) titled it Disinfection. It documents an employee of the Health Affairs unit of Ankara Municipality in protective gear disinfecting the train platform.
Picture: 2021 Sony World Photography Awards
Object
This photo is by Kata Zih (Hungary) and is titled Memento. Depicting a tailor’s mannequin in an empty room, the stillness of the scene evokes a feeling of solitude in lockdown.
Picture: 2021 Sony World Photography Awards
