The World Photography Organization announced the overall winners of the prestigious Sony World Photography Awards 2025 at the annual awards gala at Somerset House in London. British photographer Zed Nelson is “Photographer of the Year 2025” for his incredible series, The Anthropocene Illusion.
The esteemed jurors selected Nelson’s series as the best from an incredible group of Professional competition category winners. For his victory, beyond the title “Photographer of the Year 2025,” Nelson wins a $25,000 cash prize plus a range of professional Sony digital imaging equipment. He will also be able to present his work at next year’s Sony World Photography Awards 2026 exhibition.
Nelson’s The Anthropocene Illusion is a long-term documentary project spanning six years and four continents. Through his photographs, he examines the increasingly fractured relationship between humans and nature and humanity’s response to its devastating impacts on the planet. Nelson’s photographs show artificial spaces people have created to “interact” with nature, including safari parks, resorts, natural history museums, zoos, and green cities.
“The jury applauded Nelson’s urgent topic and his ability to translate complex environmental issues into striking visual narratives. The Anthropocene Illusion illustrates a world where the boundaries between the real and the artificial blur, where the wild survives in controlled enclosures, and where human nostalgia for nature is expressed through spectacle rather than action,” says Monica Allende, Chair of the 2025 Professional jury.
“Nelson’s work compels viewers to question their own role in this paradox and consider the consequences of a society increasingly distanced from the natural world. This timely body of work tells one of the most important stories of our age, and is now more critical than ever.”
Sony World Photography Awards 2025 Professional Category Winners
Alongside Nelson, whose series also won the Wildlife and Nature category in the Professional competition, the winners of the rest of the Professional categories were also unveiled today, showcasing incredible photo series across a wide range of genres and subjects. All the winners are featured below.
Open Photographer of the Year 2025
While Nelson is “Photographer of the Year 2025,” the Sony World Photography Awards 2025 also honors an “Open Photographer of the Year 2025,” celebrated for the best single image in the competition with $5,000 and a Sony digital imaging equipment kit. This year’s winner is French photographer Olivier Unia.
Unia was chosen from the 10 Open category winners who were announced last month. Unia’s winning image, Tbourida La Chute, took top honors in the Motion category.
“I’m very proud to be the Open Photographer of the Year in this major competition. It gives me the confidence to continue to share my work. I entered Tbourida La Chute, one of the photographs from a project I’ve been working on for the past two years about the Moroccan equestrian art form of tbourida, and I am pleased to see this image recognized,” the winning photographer, Olivier Una, says.
Student Photographer of the Year 2025
This year’s competition brief for the Student competition, open to photographers studying photography at leading global universities, is “In the Beginning.” Photography students were invited to enter a series of images that look at the beginning stages of a story. 10 finalists were selected in January, and Peruvian photographer Micaela Valdivia Medina from the Instituto Profesional Arcos in Chile came out on top, named “Student Photographer of the Year 2025.”
Medina’s project, The Last Day We Saw the Mountains and the Sea, turns the lens toward female prison spaces throughout Chile and the complicated dynamics between incarcerated women, their families, and society.
“To be a winner in the Sony World Photography Awards is very important to me, but also to all the women I worked with for this project. To talk about and photograph prison spaces is never easy, but it is necessary to keep making and sharing these images. As a student, I appreciate this opportunity and recognition. At this time when photography and arts education is in decline, I think it’s important that students, teachers and professional photographers unite to protect it,” Micaela Valdivia Medina remarks.
Youth Photographer of the Year 2025
Photographers aged 19 and under were selected to enter the Sony World Photography Awards 2025 and enter their best photos from the past year. Of the many who entered, 11 finalists were selected a few months ago. Of these 11, only one could win it all: Daniel Dian-Ji Wu, a 16-year-old photographer from Taiwan. Wu’s eye-catching silhouette photo of a skateboarder performing a trick in Los Angeles, California, is a fantastic action shot indicative of skill far beyond his years.
“It’s an incredible honor to be named ‘Youth Photographer of the Year.’ I feel beyond excited and grateful. Photography has been a huge part of my life for the past seven years, so this means so much to me — not just as recognition, but as a reminder of why I love what I do. It opens doors to new opportunities and connections, which makes the journey ahead even more meaningful. I’m really thankful to the Sony World Photography Awards for selecting me and can’t wait to see what’s next,” the young photographer says.
Outstanding Contribution to Photography
Alongside the Professional, Open, Student, and Youth competitions, the Sony World Photography Awards also honors photographers for their remarkable contributions to photography. This year’s honoree is documentary photographer Susan Meiselas, who is well-known and respected for her collaborative approach to portraiture, dedication to shedding light on lesser-known stories, and ability to spark vital conversations about documentary photography.
More than 60 of Meiselas’ images are on display at the Somerset House as part of the Sony World Photography Awards exhibition. The photos span her five decades of impactful work.
Sony World Photography Awards 2025
All the award-winning photos are on exhibit at the Sony World Photography Awards 2025 exhibition at Somerset House in London. The exhibition runs from April 17 through May 5. Complete details are available on the World Photography Organization’s website.
Image credits: Sony World Photography Awards, World Photography Organization. Individual photographers are credited in the image captions.
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