Sony World Photography Awards, the National Awards 2021 winners

"This dam is usually full, but had dried up. Scenes such as this show the effects of climate change are becoming more obvious. After a couple of weeks spent studying the angle of the sun, not to mention a bit of luck, I managed to take the image I’d hoped for."

"A portrait of a child working in a paddy field. She works alongside her parents as it allows her to continue her studies. Her passion was inspiring."

"This used to be the place where an audience would relieve their stresses and share their excitement, but since the Covid-19 outbreak, everything has changed. The theatre is now silent and lonely. One day, I hope, things will return to normality."

"A naked man rests in a Buenos Aires hotel room, serving his quarantine. His grandmother had died very recently, but he was in a state of absolute peace, as if it were all a bad dream. So much calmness in the midst of so much madness. I think about him almost every day."

"I photographed this beautiful horse in the entrance to its stable, using only natural light and a black background."

"I will not have you without the darkness that hides within you. I will not let you have me without the madness that makes me. If our demons cannot dance, neither can we. Poem by Nikita Gill."

"After the first snowfall towards the end of 2020, I took my camera to the largest old-growth forest in Croatia. This road runs through it."

"Santiago’s financial district is known as Sanhattan – a term coined in 1995 by the editor of newspaper La Nación, when he compared the high-rise developments in the neighbourhood of El Golf with those of Manhattan. Over time, the term made its way into common parlance."

"Tanoura is an Egyptian dance, performed in circular motions, which has its spiritual origins in Sufism. Its performers believe that all movement in the universe starts and ends at the same point, so this is reflected in the dance, with the continuous spinning making them appear like planets moving in space."

"An aerial photograph of the sports complex in Nové Město na Moravě."

"At 1,003m, Mount Zas (or Zeus) dominates the Greek island of Naxos. One day in early April, I decided to make my way to the top. By the time I was halfway up, the fog had become so dense it completely obscured the base of the mountain, making me feel as if I was flying. I noticed a small herd of sheep grazing peacefully in this strange environment. I took a shot before moving on and becoming lost in the fog"

"I may not have managed to capture any meteors during the Perseids of 2020, but I did get this night shot, which is full of wonder. The exposure was 30 seconds long, and shot at ISO 4000, using a tripod."

"The ball in this image was originally a Christmas decoration. I couldn’t find a pure matte-white ball in the shops, so I painted one instead, then took a series of images in a quarry, and made a composite of them in Photoshop."

"This image is part of my series, ‘Moving Portraits’, in which I experiment with long exposures of between one and two seconds, and flash. I love these surreal portraits that capture different emotions. They are lightly edited in post-production."

"A well deserved rest on a colourful street workout field after a couple of activ hours taken from the air."

"Vestrahorn is a beautiful mountain that appears almost to rise out of the sea. The scenery that blends in with it makes an impressive sight."

"You are angels in disguise | Side by side or miles apart | Sisters will always be connected by the heart"

"Following a hard rainfall in the National Park of Abruzzo, I spotted this wild red fox looking for food."

"A beast from the forests of northeastern India."

"Photographed in Fukushima, Japan, this train – known as Ki-Ha 40 – was retired from the Tadami Line on 11 March, 2020."

"This picture aims to represent fertility, with floating clouds, wheat fields, snow fields and the earth."

"This is an aerial photograph of a mountain road in Hakone, Japan. The path, when seen from the sky, looked like a snake. Photographed in autumn, the leaves of the coloured trees were extremely beautiful."

"Light painting one evening in a Latvian forest"

"Ancient crafts are imbued with the wisdom of previous generations, with each nation having its own tales and myths about them. For this series, I captured Lithuanian crafters with a mystical spirit in an attempt to show them as devoted caretakers of declining traditions. This image is one of many from that project."

"Volleyball is the national sport of Nepal, and is particularly popular in the higher mountains. This entrance through the stone wall leads to a public-school compound where villagers play volleyball once classes have finished. When I made this image, the ground was engulfed with fog, silhouetting the volleyball-playing men."

"This photograph of a long-tailed macaque, also known as the crab-eating macaque, was taken in the mangrove forest of Kuala Gula, Perak. I went there one evening, hoping to photograph birds or snakes, when I saw a group of macaques foraging in the mud for their last meal of the day. A ray of light from the sunset fell on this macaque just as it looked up. I felt it looked like a gesture of hope for the future."

"This piece of ice had rolled around in the shallows until it assumed a worn and organic form. I photographed it at dusk and lit it from below."

"Sunrise on the slopes of the Popocatépetl volcano."

"This scene shows a father and son catching fish early one winter morning. In Myanmar, children work with their parents to bring in an income for the whole family."

"This Museum of Islamic Art has rapidly become an iconic feature of the Doha landscape. Standing alone on reclaimed land, the building draws a great deal of influence from ancient Islamic architecture, most notably the Mosque of Ibn Tulun in Cairo. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect I.M. Pei, the museum comprises a main building with an adjacent education wing connected by a large central courtyard. The main building is five storeys high, and is topped by a domed atrium within a central tower. The cream-coloured limestone captures the changes in light and shade during the day."

"The model in this photograph is a young actress by the name of Cezara Munteanu. The picture was taken in my studio in Botosani, Romania, in 2020, a year full of many emotions and inner uncertainties."

"The Moon Girl or the dark side of social media where everyone seems to be happy"

"In Ethiopia's South Omo, the tribes who live in the valley depend on the Omo River for survival. Sixty-two million Ethiopians lack access to safe water. This is everyday life for them.

"A lone cross-country skier ascends a hill. I wanted to capture a minimal winter image that had symbolism and suggested a parallel with human life."

"A home, immersed in complete silence, and forgotten about until spring."

"2020 covid-19 pandemic Saudi Arabia. This photo was taken to convey a feeling of despair and everything that we have in life has stopped due to the pandemic"

"A panoramic view of unused taxis parked on the rooftop of this building reveals something of the dire economic situation brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the success of several vaccine programmes, it will take a long time for lives to return to pre-Covid days."

"I took this picture from the Salève, a mountain near Geneva. I was coming home from work when I saw the storm, so got out to take some pictures."

"My friend and I were on our first climb of the winter. We’d hoped to ascend three mountains on the same ridge, but because of the conditions, we had to turn back before the final peak. This image expresses the struggle we faced in deciding whether to turn round or continue."

"On a weekday in August, while I was wandering along Main Street, Colombo, this man caught my attention among the crowds of people and busy traffic. I crossed to the middle of the road and pulled out my phone to capture the life of a worker doing his best to survive during the Covid-19 pandemic."

"This photograph was taken for a project on colour theory; the objective of this photograph was to use a warm colour palette. My aim was to explore colour further by considering its socially constructed meaning. Pink is a colour that is often associated with femininity, and through this image, I aimed to blur the lines between gender stereotypes such as this."

"Inspired by the expressionist movement, I tried to convey a subjective experience with this image, rather than an objective reality. The image was created by taking individual shots of an oxidised iron structure and recomposing them later into a balloon-like image. During production, I gradually rediscovered and recreated the composition."

"The pandemic has affected everyone. Since places of worship are closed, these men pray on the Astroturf pitch, while adhering to social distancing."

"For the people of Taitung in Taiwan, the Bombing of Master Handan is the highlight of the annual Lantern Festival; it’s a cultural ritual I attend every year. While most spectators concentrated on the sedan chair, I noticed the firecracker thrower below, with the scene looking just like a battlefield."

"New Taipei Metropolitan Park"

"Autumn season at Lake Kawaguchi in Japan.Mount Fuji with autumn leaves is very popular in the photographers, and I love taking photo in this season,too."

"The tiger is an important symbol in Taiwanese culture. Here, I used fluorescent paint to depict its essence."

"A snaking dune in Death Valley meets the saddle of the surrounding mountains."

"This photograph was taken in Ha Giang, Vietnam. I went into a house in the village and asked permission to take pictures there."

"This image is part of a series shot during the 2020 lockdown. Called 'Masquerade, a visual exploration of our true selves', it aims to explore photography’s particular ability to describe a historical moment in a conceptual form. Each photograph encourages the viewer to question the way in which we reveal ourselves to others. Has society turned into one big masquerade ball?"

"This photograph is a story of first times. The first time I shot my dear friend Léo, that I only had met once in my life about ten years ago. The first time I went outside after three months. The first friend I met after the lockdown. The first time I worked with a model so brave and so dedicated to art and creation. The first time I felt how much photography was important to me."

"This photo was taken in Kuwait. I use Mavic air 2 for this photo. It is hard to choose motion technique specially with drone, After many shots am happy with this result."

"Last picture from a personal shoot this October. 2020 feels like we're all just bumping our heads against a big wall together."