• The Overall Winners of the Sony World Photography Awards 2025 were announced tonight at a special gala ceremony in London
• Zed Nelson receives prestigious Photographer of the Year title
• Susan Meiselas honoured as the 2025 Outstanding Contribution to Photography
• 10 Professional category winners additionally announced

The Sony World Photography Awards announced today the overall winners of its 18th edition at a special gala ceremony in London, bringing together leading figures in the industry to honour this year’s winners and their achievements.

The prestigious Photographer of the Year 2025 title was awarded to the acclaimed British photographer Zed Nelson for the series The Anthropocene Illusion. Nelson receives a $25,000 (USD) cash prize, a range of Sony digital imaging equipment, and the opportunity to present an additional body of work at the Sony World Photography Awards 2026 exhibition.

Nelson was selected from the 10 Professional competition category winners, who were announced at today’s ceremony, alongside the 2nd and 3rd place finalists in each category. The evening’s programme additionally recognised the overall winners of the Awards’ Open, Student and Youth competitions. Also honoured during the course of the evening was this year’s Outstanding Contribution to Photography recipient, the acclaimed documentary photographer Susan Meiselas.

Over almost two decades, the Awards have become a definitive annual moment for the discovery and celebration of contemporary photography. Each year the Awards celebrate the stories and images that shape our visual language and capture the imagination, offering a global perspective on this ever-evolving medium. The Sony World Photography Awards 2025 exhibition is on display at Somerset House, London from 17 April – 5 May, presenting over 300 prints and hundreds of images in digital displays, as well as a special presentation by Susan Meiselas.

PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

The Anthropocene Illusion is a long-term documentary project, spanning six years and four continents, which explores the deeply fractured relationship between humans and the natural world. Taking the concept of the ‘Anthropocene’, a term for the current period in Earth’s history which is characterised by humans being the dominant influence on the environment, Nelson’s series focuses on humanity’s response to its impact on the planet. The project looks at artificial spaces, created by humans as a means to ‘experience’ and interact with nature, from safari parks, nature reserves and resorts, to natural history museums, zoos and green cities. Nelson uses these constructions as a lens through which to explore the dissonance between the human desire to stay connected to nature, and the continuous environmental destruction caused by human activity.

Commenting on his win, Zed Nelson says: 'I'm very honoured for my work to be recognised by the Sony World Photography Awards. Over the last six years, I have explored how we immerse ourselves in choreographed and simulated environments to mask our destructive impact on the natural world – we have become masters of a stage-managed, artificial ‘experience’ of nature. Projects such as this take extensive research and a very long time to complete - the recognition of this Award really helps to now get the work out into the world and to be able to tell this vital story.’