The Sony World Photography Awards, now in their 19th year and produced by Creo under its World Photography Organisation strand, remain one of the most important fixtures in the global photographic calendar (World Photography Organisation 2026). The 2026 Awards exhibition is currently on display at Somerset House, London, until 4 May, showcasing more than 300 prints and hundreds of images across digital displays, as well as special solo presentations by the renowned Joel Meyerowitz and 2025 Photographer of the Year Zed Nelson. Across this year’s competitions, over 430,000 images from more than 200 countries and territories were submitted (Sony UK Press Centre 2026). Each edition of the Awards brings into focus stories and images with profound resonance, offering an authoritative perspective on the ever-evolving art and craft of photography.
The Photographer of the Year prize went to Citlali Fabián, a visual artist currently based in London and from the Yalalteca Zapotec Indigenous community in the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, Mexico, for the series Bilha, Stories of my Sisters (2026), which blends carefully crafted photographic portraits with digital illustrations. The drawings are applied to the images, comprising symbols and motifs that reflect the sitters’ personal trajectories and celebrate their cultural heritage. The series presents the stories of prominent women from Indigenous communities across Oaxaca, Mexico, whose advocacy work generates meaningful impact across a range of spheres: in law, linguistics, the arts and ecology (World Photography Organisation 2026). Conceived as a project to inspire young girls with positive role models, and created through close, sustained collaboration with the women portrayed, the images highlight their subjects’ achievements as well as their lived experiences and motivations. For Fabián, this ethical commitment to co-authorship is central: ‘It is essential that those who have historically been underrepresented feel heard, respected, and actively involved in the way they are portrayed.’ (Fabián 2026)
Monica Allende, Chair of the 2026 Professional jury and curator of the exhibition (World Photography Organisation 2026), commented on the winning series: ‘Through her work, Citlali Fabián reflects on urgent questions of visibility and representation. In many Indigenous cultures, stories are told collectively, shaped by conversation and lived experience rather than by a single voice. Fabián brings this spirit into her photographic practice by working closely with each woman she portrays. Her subjects are not simply photographed; they are active participants in shaping how their stories are told.’ (Allende 2026)
Selected by a panel of expert judges for their original approach to storytelling and outstanding technical ability, the winning series in the Professional competition demonstrate the breadth of contemporary practice on view across the East and West Wing galleries of Somerset House.
Among the Open competition highlights is the work of Open Photographer of the Year Elle Leontiev, from Australia, with the haunting portrait titled The Barefoot Volcanologist (2026). The image depicts Phillip Yamah, an internationally recognised, self-taught volcano scientist, standing atop a volcanic rock bomb on the island of Tanna, Vanuatu (Sony UK Press Centre 2026). Nearby, the Student Photographer of the Year is Jubair Ahmed Arnob, from Bangladesh, whose series The Place Where I Used to Play (2026) narrates the changing landscape of the Green Model Town neighbourhood of his native Dhaka, where urban development continues to alter daily life and the suburban topography of that vast metropolis.
While the exhibition is, overall, well curated across the corridors and rooms of Somerset House, at least one space felt somewhat overcrowded: a cluster of images evidently intended to speak to one another, though the conversation did not always cohere, tending towards the didactic in its explication of foundational photographic principles such as composition and contrast.
Visitors should also seek out The Anthropocene Illusion (2025), the expanded solo show by 2025 overall winner Zed Nelson, known for his long-term documentary projects that explore contemporary society. Nelson’s project statement reads: ‘We are forcing animals and plants to extinction by removing their habitats, and divorcing ourselves from the land we once roamed… So, while we devastate the world around us, we have become masters of a stage-managed, artificial “experience” of nature — a reassuring spectacle, an illusion.’ (Nelson 2025) The work situates itself within a wider critical tradition: Nelson draws explicitly on Guy Debord’s observation that ‘everything that was directly lived has receded into a representation’ (Debord 1967) and on John Berger’s ‘Everywhere animals disappear’ (Berger 1980), framing ecological loss as both spectacle and collective denial. A compelling illustration of this thesis is his photograph taken during the six-week annual ‘bear season’, showing tourists glimpsing polar bears roaming the shoreline of Canada’s Hudson Bay, awaiting the return of sea ice (World Photography Organisation 2025).
The prestigious Outstanding Contribution to Photography 2026 award was presented to the acclaimed American photographer Joel Meyerowitz, whose practice has long been marked by an observant eye, finely tuned to the currents and textures of life. A selection of Meyerowitz’s works, including excerpts from the series Europa (1966–1967) and two new artist videos, are on view, offering an insight into the spirit and curiosity that has characterised his practice for the past six decades, and revealing a remarkable instinct for framing images that are at once arresting and enigmatic, imbued with beauty and wit.
Sony World Photography Awards 2026 Somerset House, London, 17 April – 4 May 2026
Bibliography
Allende, M 2026, ‘Jury statement: Citlali Fabián, Photographer of the Year 2026’, Sony World Photography Awards, World Photography Organisation, London, viewed 21 April 2026.
Nelson, Z 2025, The Anthropocene Illusion, project statement, World Photography Organisation, London, viewed 21 April 2026.
Press Centre 2026, Sony World Photography Awards 2026: Overall Winners Announced, Sony Europe, London, viewed 21 April 2026.
World Photography Organisation 2025, The Anthropocene Illusion by Zed Nelson, winners gallery, World Photography Organisation, London, viewed 21 April 2026.
World Photography Organisation 2026, Sony World Photography Awards 2026 exhibition, Somerset House, London, 17 April — 4 May, viewed 21 April 2026.
Images courtesy of Sony World Photography Awards 2026
