The Sony World Photo Awards are known for being one of the largest photography competitions, attracting close to half a million entrants each year, but also for serving up some lucrative cash sums to winners.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the competition, with the 2027 awards offering $25,000 (£18,600 / AU$35,340) to the overall Photographer of the Year as well as $5,000 (£3,700 / AU$7,000) to the Single Image Competition and Sustainability Prize winners.
While the 2027 awards bring changes to two of the competition names – the Professional competition has rebranded as the Series competition, and the Open competition is now the Single Image competition – the structure, prizes, and recognition remain the same as in previous years.
Last year’s overall winner was Citlali Fabián for the series Bilha, Stories of my Sisters. Fabián, a London-based visual artist, hails from the Yalalteca Indigenous community in Mexico and, through her lens, explores themes of identity, migration, and connection.
She was chosen as the Photographer of the Year from over 430,000 entries across all the award’s competitions and, along with the cash prize, will showcase her winning work at this year’s awards exhibition.
Along with the Single Image and Series competitions, there’s also the Student Competition – for photography students – and the Youth competition – for entrants 19 years of age and under. However, instead of money, the winners of the latter three competitions snag Sony gear.
The Sony World Photo Awards 2027 is now open for submissions and is free to enter for all competitions. These awards are extensive and there are different closing dates for the different competitions, as well as various categories you can enter within each. Head to the awards website for more information.
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