Sony and the World Photography Organisation have announced the winners of the 2026 Sony World Photography Awards. The coveted Photographer of the Year prize goes to Citlali Fabián, a young Mexican visual artist from the Yalalteca Indigenous community. In "Bilha, Stories of my Sisters", her mixed-media winning series, Fabián opens a window onto the world of activists and artists from various indigenous communities from Southern Mexico.
The Photographer of the Year for the Open category, which awards a single picture by professionals and non-professionals alike, is Elle Leontiev, an Australian photographer. Her winning portrait depicts Philip, a local volcanologist from Vanuatu, who grew up beneath the active volcano he studies and helps others explore.
Moreover, the awards recognized another 10 professional category winners, all bringing interesting and deeply personal series that encapsulate the lasting power of photography. Joy Saha won the Architecture and Design category with Homes of Haor. The pictures in the series offer a glimpse of Bangladeshi houses that, during monsoon season, turn into islands on a flooded plain.
British photographer Dafna Talmor won the Landscape category with Constructed Landscape, a powerful conceptual work that uses "negative collages" to explore the relationship between the photographer and her previous work in landscape photography.
Regardless of the theme and the category, this year's awards were also a refreshing break from the AI mass psychosis we're all constantly submerged into. AI was never mentioned, nor anyone felt absolutely any need to enquire about its potential role in changing photography.
For all the end-of-the-world predictions about the future of photography, this year's SWPA have instead proved that photography as a medium to tell stories rooted in the human experience is still alive and kicking.
The choice of Joel Meyerowitz as the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography prize was another confirmation of the trend. Meyerowitz, whose photographic language has single-handedly redefined the concept of street photography, has wowed the audience with his presence and stories, showing that a photographic experience that comes from the ability to capture moments through the filter of the photographer's brain is still a powerful asset, even in the era of AI.
"The photographs I have made over the years show the world as I see it, and the moments of beauty, humour and fun that can be found everywhere, if we take the opportunity to look", said Meyerowitz. "I hope this exhibition will encourage visitors to look again at their surroundings and engage with all of the life that unfolds around them".
The Sony World Photography Awards 2026 exhibition is on display at Somerset House, London from 17 April – 4 May, presenting over 300 prints and hundreds of images in digital displays, as well as a special presentation by Joel Meyerowitz.