The shortlist has been announced for the 2019 Sony World Photography Awards.
Professional photographers the world over have entered their best pictures in the annual competition in the hopes of winning $25,000 and heavy promotion.
A panel of anonymous judges were faced with hundreds of thousands of photographs from which they selected the best across ten categories.
Winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on April 17 along with the winner of the student photography awards, the shortlist for which has also been announced.
All shortlisted pictures will be on show at Somerset House in London from April 18 until May 6 before the exhibition travels around the world to countries such as Japan, Germany and Italy.
Here The Independent has compiled the best pictures from the shortlist in the gallery above.
