Street‑photo prizes announced
The LCE Photographer of the Year 2026 crown went to Sophia Spurgin — a retired teacher — for a portrait of a Vietnamese fisherman, from a field of more than 14,500 entries (e.vnexpress.net). Sony World Photography Awards also released national and regional winners this week, and a raw World Cup pub photo took a street‑photography prize at the CEWE Awards, underscoring emotional, documentary work in 2026 (popsci.com) (digitalcameraworld.com).
The image is titled "Fish Eyes," shot by Sophia Spurgin in Hoi An from a boat and described by the LCE winners gallery as the playful finale to a portrait session rather than a staged composition. (poty.lcegroup.co.uk) London Camera Exchange says the LCE Photographer of the Year contest is in its third year, awarded a total prize fund of £10,000 across 14 category winners, and registered a roughly 40% increase in entries versus 2025. (leicasociety.uk) The World Photography Organisation’s Sony World Photography Awards received over 430,000 submissions from photographers in more than 200 countries and territories for its 2026 programmes, the organisation and press coverage report. (petapixel.com) Sony will stage its Photographer of the Year ceremony at Somerset House on April 16, 2026, while all single-country National Award winners and 1st-place regional winners will appear in the 2026 exhibition and receive Sony digital-imaging prize kits. (petapixel.com) The CEWE Photo Award’s Street Photography winner is Mike Taylor’s "The Beautiful Game," a frame taken in a UK pub during the dramatic France–Argentina 4–3 match at the 2018 FIFA World Cup and shot on a Leica Q (Typ 116) with flash at 1/60s, according to Digital Camera World’s coverage. (digitalcameraworld.com) CEWE’s public materials list a category-first prize package that includes a trip worth €10,000 plus a €5,000 equipment voucher and a €2,500 CEWE voucher, and the overall CEWE competition advertises more than €250,000 in total prizes. (cewe.co.uk)
