Sony World Photography Awards 2025: Judging Panel and Competition Details Announced
French photographer Juliette Pavy won the title Photographer of the Year 2024 in the Sony World Photography Awards for her series Spiralkampagnen: Forced Contraception and Unintended Sterilisation of Greenlandic Women.
The world's largest photography competition, the Sony World Photography Awards (SWPA) is back for 2025 and has announced its judging panel, key dates, and a range of exciting updates for its 18th year. This year's judging panel brings together renowned experts from across the industry, while the four competitions have a total of 22 categories catering for different styles and genres of photography.
The four Competitions are:
Professional - 10 categories
Open - 10 categories
Student - 1 category
Youth - 1 category
Read about the winners of the Sony World Photography Awards 2024
SWPA Judging Panel for 2025
Monica Allende returns as the Chair of the Professional Competition jury for the second consecutive year. A well-respected figure in the world of photography, Allende is an independent curator and photography consultant, bringing a wealth of experience. Joining her on the professional jury are several esteemed professionals, including:
Yves Chatap, an independent curator and art critic from Cameroon and France
Aldeide Delgado, founder of the Women Photographers International Archive (WOPHA) in the United States
Vicky Ismach, curatorial coordinator at Montevideo's Centre of Photography
Manuel Sigrist from Switzerland’s Photo Elysée
Isabella Tam, curator of visual art at Hong Kong's M+ museum
The Open and Youth competitions will be judged by Claudia Grimaldi Marks of Getty Images. Meanwhile, Charlotte Jansen, author, journalist and critic, will judge the Student competition.
Key Competition Dates
The Sony World Photography Awards 2025 is already open, with deadlines for submissions across several dates as follows:
Professional competition: 10 January 2025, 13:00 GMT
Open competition: 3 January 2025, 13:00 GMT
Student competition: 29 November 2024, 13:00 GMT
Youth competition: 3 January 2025, 13:00 GMT
New Category
New for 2025, the Professional competition introduces the 'Perspectives' category that invites photographers to showcase a series of images that tell a story through diverse formats and genres, from documentary to portraiture and landscapes.
Prizes and Global Exposure
The competition offers substantial prizes, including digital imaging equipment from Sony for all the category winners. The Photographer of the Year will receive a $25,000 (USD) cash prize, while the Open Photographer of the Year will take home $5,000 (USD). In addition, the Photographer of the Year will have their work showcased in a solo presentation at the following year’s exhibition in London.
Winning and shortlisted photographers will also have their work displayed at the Sony World Photography Awards 2025 exhibition, which returns to Somerset House, London, from 17th April to 5th May 2025. This exhibition is a significant event in the global photography calendar and draws visitors from around the world.
2024 SWPA Travelling Exhibition
For those who didn't make it to London, the 2024 exhibition is currently on tour internationally. The tour includes stops in Italy, Korea, Canada, New Zealand and Germany. The dates are as follows:
Milan, Italy, 6 June - 29 September 2024
Busan, Republic of Korea, 22 August - 22 September 2024
Montreal, Canada, 29 August - 15 October 2024
Hastings, New Zealand, 14 - 22 September 2024
Berlin, Germany, 11 October 2024 - 19 January 2025
For more information on the competition and how to enter, visit the World Photography Organisation's official website.
