With 345,000 images submitted from 203 different territories, the Sony Photography Awards has once again brought together the great and the good of global photography for its annual, flagship competition.
The 10 professional categories range from architecture to portraiture, and submissions portrayed everything from Iranian tower blocks to mystical creatures of the deep. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on April 16 – until then, here are our favourite shots…
1. Below Surface, Tobias Friedrich – a split shot of an Egyptian coral reef.
2. Massive, Marko Dimitrijevic – icicles form on a grizzly bear’s fur after emerging from a river in the Canadian Arctic.
3. The Burning, Nicholas Moir – a lone fire truck retreats from the deadly Green Wattle Creek fire, near Sydney.
4. Ice Fishing Hut XV, Sandra Herber – an isolated fishing shack in the frozen wastes of Manitoba, Canada.
5. Night Dream Ocean, Songda Cai – a diamond squid pictured in Anilao Bay, the Philippines.
6. At The Pink Planet, Yevhen Samuchenko – the vibrant waters of Lemurian Lake, a salt lake in Ukraine.
7. Pangolins In Crisis, Brent Stirton – a pangolin forages food after being rescued from illegal animal traffickers.
8. Himebotaru Gathering In The Forest, Masahiro Hiroike – a swarm of tiny fireflies light up the night in the mountains of Tottori, Japan.
9. Panlong Road, Peixia Xie – an ancient road snakes up a mountainside in the Eastern Chinese province of Xinjiang.
10. Monkey Graffiti, Joan de la Malla – a macaque walks in front of a monkey-themed mural in the city of Lopburi, Thailand.
11. Torii Einootsurugi, Ronny Behnert – a pristine torii gate in Kumamoto, Japan.
12. Scarecrow, Ian Willms – an improvised scarecrow stands by a Syncrude oil sands site in Alberta, to deter birds from landing in the deadly tailings ponds.
13. Field Of Infinity, Reuben Wu – Bolivian salt flats illuminated by an LED drone.
14. Sand Elephant Memories, Massimo Gurrieri – an image from India described by the photographer as ‘memories, dust, religion and pollution’.
15. Orange & Grey, Mauro Battistelli – autumnal colour in a Texas swamp.
