Organized by the World Photography Organization, the annual public competition selects “the best individual images” in categories such as travel, architecture and street photography.
Vietnamese photographer Khanh Phan won the travel category for the dried fish image, which was taken at the Long Hai fish market in Ba Ria -Vung Tau, Vietnam.
Spanish photographer Juan López Ruiz won the landscape category for capturing the moment when lightning strikes a lavender field, with a lone tree in the center.
Spanish photographer Juan López Ruiz won the landscape category with this image. Credit: Juan López Ruiz / 2021 Sony World Photography Awards
German photographer Klaus Lenzen won the architecture category for his image of a flight of stairs at the Hyatt hotel in Düsseldorf, which appear to be floating in space.
And F. Dilek Uyar, from Turkey, was elected the winner of the street photography category for a photo of a city official in Ankara, Turkey, disinfecting a train platform.
The winners in the other six categories are as follows: Tamary Kudita, Zimbabwe, in the creative category; Mariano Belmar Torrecilla, Spain, lifestyle; Marijo Maduna, Croatia, motion; Christ Pihlamäe, Estonia, natural world and wildlife; Kata Zih, Hungary, object; and Lyudmila Sabanina, Russian Federation, portraits.
Vietnamese photographer Khanh Phan won the travel category with this image. Credit: Khanh Phan / 2021 Sony World Photography Awards
The 10 category winners will be considered for the general title and a prize of $ 5,000. They also receive a selection of digital imaging equipment from Sony. The overall winner of the Open competition will be announced on April 15th.
More than 100 photographers were selected for the competition alongside the category winners. The winning and selected works will be shown in a virtual exhibition on the World Photography Organization website.
The 2021 contest was judged by Gastón Deleau, director of the FOLA gallery (Fototeca Latinoamericana – Photo Library of Latin America) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Scroll through the gallery above to see the 10 category winners in the Sony World Photography Awards Open.