Sony World Photography Awards 2026 Winners Announced, Exhibition at Somerset House

The 19th Sony World Photography Awards Open competition has revealed winners and shortlisted entries across ten categories including architecture, landscape, portraiture, and travel. Selected works will be displayed at Somerset House in London from April 17 to May 4, 2026. Chinese photographer Liping Jiang's shortlisted travel image captures snowfall on crimson monk quarters, contrasting warmth and frost. Sarah Barlow from the United Kingdom explores potential and impermanence in her Red Balloon series, using stillness to suggest both peace and precarity. German photographer Jan Goeke isolates architectural details in Chromatic Order, transforming structures into balanced compositions through precise framing. Another German photographer, Klaus Lenzen, focuses on a Düsseldorf hardware store's bold red façade in his architectural shortlist, describing such scenes as everyday works of art. Md Tanveer Hassan Rohan, born in Dhaka, Bangladesh, won with an image of the National Museum of Qatar designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, showcasing its desert rose-inspired geometric disks. The competition celebrates single images from the past year, highlighting technical excellence and compelling storytelling through meticulously composed cityscapes and fleeting human moments. Rohan's work has been exhibited in 45 countries and was previously part of the 2016 awards. The awards recognize lens-based artists globally, offering a vivid cross-section of contemporary photography.