Sony Photography winners
- The Sony World Photography Awards 2026 received more than 430,000 submissions from over 200 countries and territories. - Winners were announced at a gala in London, and Zed Nelson was named Photographer of the Year. - The scale and global participation underline the competition's broad reach across documentary and fine-art photography. (boredpanda.com) (itahora.com)
The Sony World Photography Awards named Mexican artist Citlali Fabián its 2026 Photographer of the Year at a London ceremony on April 16, not Zed Nelson. (worldphoto.org) Fabián won for *Bilha, Stories of my Sisters*, a series about activists and artists from Indigenous communities in Oaxaca, Mexico. The World Photography Organisation said the project is intended to become a children’s book with digital illustrations by the photographer. (worldphoto.org) The same April 16 gala in London also named Elle Leontiev Open Photographer of the Year, Jubair Ahmed Arnob Student Photographer of the Year, and 16-year-old Philip Kangas Youth Photographer of the Year. Arnob studies at Counter Foto in Bangladesh, and Kangas is from Stockholm, Sweden. (worldphoto.org) The awards matter in part because they function as a global pipeline for photographers at different career stages, from teenagers to established professionals. The World Photography Organisation says entry is free and the program includes professional, open, student, and youth competitions. (worldphoto.org) The winners are folded directly into a public exhibition at Somerset House in London, which runs from April 17 through May 4 and displays more than 300 photographs. That exhibition also includes a special presentation by Joel Meyerowitz, this year’s recipient of the Outstanding Contribution to Photography honor. (worldphoto.org) The confusion around Zed Nelson comes from the previous awards cycle. The World Photography Organisation’s 2026 exhibition page identifies Nelson as the 2025 Photographer of the Year, and its 2026 launch announcement says he won last year for *The Anthropocene Illusion*. (worldphoto.org 1) (worldphoto.org 2) In the professional competition, Fabián’s project also topped the Creative category, where Pablo Ramos placed second and Ben Brooks placed third. The category page lists Fabián’s series as the work attached to the overall Photographer of the Year award. (worldphoto.org) The 2026 results leave Nelson in the show but not at the top of this year’s awards. This year’s headline winner is Fabián, and her Oaxaca-centered series now anchors the awards’ main exhibition in London. (worldphoto.org 1) (worldphoto.org 2)
