© Sunita Mandal / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Wildlife & Nature. From a project named Born of Ice. A mother polar bear shelters two tiny cubs at the mouth of a wind-carved snow den on Baffin Island’s sea ice in their first weeks above ground.© Delfina Pignatiello / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Sport. From a project named Nymphs, an underwater photographic series shot in a swimming pool using a camera in a waterproof housing. Lights were placed outside the water to provide both front and back lighting, with the images of national synchronized swimmers captured using breath-hold immersion.© Chen Liang / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Finalist, Architecture & Design. From a project named Chinese Watchtowers, about a unique set of watchtowers in Jiangmen, in China’s Guangdong Province, built from 1912 to 1949. Seen here is the Zunzhen family school in Jiangmen.© David Baxter III / Sony World Photography Awards 2026“UFOs in New Mexico.” Shortlist, Landscape. From a project named Supercells: Mother Nature Unleashed. David Baxter: “A UFO-style supercell slowly morphs over the southern High Plains of New Mexico, bringing some of the best structure Tornado Alley has to offer.”© Ron Timehin / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Portraiture. From a project named The Labadi Community, featuring a community “shaped by canoe fishing and fish processing” on Accra’s coast in Ghana, on the Gulf of Guinea. Ron Timehin: “These young boys from the Labadi community are quickly becoming men, already engaging in manual labour and fishing to help support their village. One even has a child of his own. The Ghanaian flag on the left is a tribute to their country, which they take pride in.”© Benjamin Pawlica / Sony World Photography Awards 2026“Rain of Spores.” Shortlist, Wildlife & Nature. From a project named Fairy Mushroom Sporulations, showcasing spores being released from a number of different mushrooms.© Marcus Westberg / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Wildlife & Nature. From a project named South Sudan’s Forgotten Wilderness, featuring aerial photographs of many different animals in the region. Here, a herd of African savanna elephants moves through wetlands in Jonglei State.© Hans-Juergen Burkard / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Portraiture. From a project named Dog Beach, featuring images of dogs and their humans along the North Sea coast in Germany.© Liam Man / Sony World Photography Awards 2026“Standing on New Ground.” Shortlist, Landscape. From a project named When Mountains Move, featuring images of the Leones Glacier in Chile. At the terminus of the Leones Glacier, freshly exposed bedrock shows where the ice has retreated. The rocks, polished by millennia of glacial abrasion, are now uncovered by the relentless melting.© Hugo Hebbe / Sony World Photography Awards 2026“Kamaya.” Shortlist, Wildlife & Nature. From a project named Guardians of the Jungle, exploring encounters with wild western lowland gorillas in the Congo Basin. Hugo Hebbe: “Kamaya sits in full majesty, gazing into the distance in the jungle of Gabon. His massive frame dominates the image, imposing yet composed. Although fully wild, he has grown accustomed to human presence.”© Shaohan Fang / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Portraiture. From a project named En Route, which “attempts to capture the state of being adrift in the face of the unknown, reflecting a shared struggle to find direction and meaning.”© Loren Elliott / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Wildlife & Nature. From a project named The Coyotes of San Francisco.© Andreas Secci / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Finalist, Landscape. From a project named The Oyster, featuring abstract landscapes depicting oyster farming on the French coast of Normandy and Brittany.© Alessandro Gandolfi / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Still Life. From a project named Knock on Wood and Cross Your Fingers, featuring superstitions and good luck charms. Alessandro Gandolfi: “An animist girl from the Sara people is given a veil made of green beads to cover her face during a ceremony of initiation and passage to adulthood in Moundou, Chad.”© Rob Van Thienen / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Finalist, Sport. From a project named It's a Dog’s Life, featuring sight-hound training sessions.© Yi-Hsuan Lin / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Environment. From a project named Floating Solar Panels, featuring typhoon-damaged rafts of floating solar panels along Taiwan’s coast.© Dara Petrova / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Perspectives. From a project named Circle, featuring images of life in Ukraine during the ongoing Russian invasion.© Anita Pouchard Serra / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Finalist, Wildlife & Nature. From a project named Capybaras at the Forefront of the Dispute and Resistance in Buenos Aires. Passengers in a car watch a capybara eating grass by the side of a road running through the private city in Nordelta, Tigre, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina.© Dong Wei / Sony World Photography Awards 2026Shortlist, Documentary Projects. From a project named The Gathering Table, featuring varied forms of collectivism found in Sichuan and Chongqing in China.© Daniel Clavería / Sony World Photography Awards 2026“Reflections of Serenity.” Shortlist, Landscape. From a project named The Last Glow, featuring photographs of Argentine and Chilean Patagonia region during autumn.© Todd Antony / Sony World Photography Awards 2026“Against the Reins.” Finalist, Sport. From a project named Buzkashi, depicting players of this ancient sport in Tajikistan.Be sure to see all of the honored images in the galleries on Sony’s official competition website.