The annual Open Competition is organized by the World Photography Organization and selects ‘the best single images’ in categories such as travel, architecture and street photography.
Vietnamese photographer Khanh Phan won the travel category for the dried fish statue, 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 lightning falls over a lavender field, with a lone tree in the middle.
Spanish photographer Juan López Ruiz won the landscape category for this image. Credit: Juan López Ruiz / 2021 Sony World Photography Awards
German photographer Klaus Lenzen won the architecture category for his image of a set of stairs in the Hyatt Hotel in Düsseldorf that looks like it is floating in space.
And F. Dilek Uyar, from Turkey, was named the winner of the street photography category for a photo of a municipal worker in Ankara, Turkey, disinfecting a train platform.
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; Cristo Pihlamäe, Estonia, natural world and wildlife; Kata Zih, Hungary, object; and Lyudmila Sabanina, Russian Federation, portraits.
Vietnamese photographer Khanh Phan won the travel category for this image. Credit: Khanh Phan / 2021 Sony World Photography Awards
The ten category winners are now being considered for the overall title and a prize of $ 5,000. They also receive a range of digital imaging devices from Sony. The overall winner of the Open competition will be announced on April 15.
More than 100 photographers are shortlisted for the competition along with the category winners. Winning and shortlisted work will be displayed in a virtual exhibition on the World Photography Organization website.
The 2021 competition was judged by Gastón Deleau, director of the FOLA (Fototeca Latinoamericana – Latin American Photo Library) gallery in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Browse through the gallery above to see the 10 category winners in the Sony World Photography Awards Open competition.