Sony Awards Unveils the Stunning Finalists in the Professional Categories

Mar 01, 2023

Matt Growcoot

Shortlisted for the Wildlife & Nature award — A pair of bear cubs outside a rural home in North Carolina | Corey Arnold, United States

The Sony World Photography Awards has announced its finalists and shortlist for the 2023 professional categories featuring incredible images from photographers all over the world.

The competition rewards exceptional series of work both for technical skill and an original approach to storytelling.

Over 415,000 images from over 200 countries were submitted to the awards with over 180,000 of those entering the Professional competition.

Shortlisted for the Wildlife & Nature award — A crocodile sets upon a wildebeest in Kenya’s Masai Mara | Zhu Zhu, Canada

Shortlisted for the Portraiture award — An Afghan girls’ soccer team poses for a photo while wearing burqa | Ebrahim Noroozi, Iran

Shortlisted for the Wildlife & Nature award — A wild coyote roams around San Francisco’s Bernal Heights Park | Corey Arnold, United States

Shortlisted for the Portraiture award — Congolese artist Hemock Kilomboshi posing in his rubber costume in the Democratic Republic of Congo | Colin Delfosse, Belgium

Shortlisted for the Environment award — A Kuchi-Baranghi herder leads his flock from the Shiwa pastures in the north of Badakshan towards the plains in the province of Kunduz, Afghanistan | Bruno Zanzottera, Italy

Shortlisted for the Portfolio award — Portrait of World War II veteran Acek Urmanbetov, 98 years old. Acek is reluctant to talk about the war he was sent to at the age of 18. But he vividly remembers everything, the leg he lost in Bielorussia, the people he shot, the dead rotting in the trenches | Marylise Vigneau, France

Shortlisted for the Wildlife & Nature award — Taken during the annual mobula ray migration off the coast of Mexico | Martin Broen, United States

Shortlisted for the Wildlife & Nature award — A mobula ray leaps from the water | Martin Broen, United States

Shortlisted for the Portraiture award — Volodymyr Husak, 28 at one of the apartments in the Dub-ok co-op building in Irpin, Ukraine | Sasha Maslov, Ukraine

Shortlisted for the Sport award — Paola Ogechi Egonu of Italy during Women’s World Championship Italy of volleyball | Ronald Hoogendoorn, Netherlands

Shortlisted for the Documentary Projects award — In the middle of the busy streets of Kabul, Pacha and his daughter Bebe Aisa are trying to earn enough money for today’s food by cleaning and polishing shoes. | Mads Nissen, Denmark

Shortlisted for the Portraiture award — Mohimbo, 48, poses in front of his hairdressing salon in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. | Jerome Delay, France

Shortlisted for the Environment award — Two children pause to take a memorial photo of themselves on Lake Qarun, Fayoum, Egypt. The lake suffers from pollution. | Fatma Fahmy, Egypt

Shortlisted for the Sport award | Josef Hlavka

Shortlisted for the Creative award | Lee-Ann Olwage, South Africa

The winner of Photographer of the Year 2023 will be announced on April 13. A selection of the finalists will be exhibited as part of the Sony World Photography Awards at Somerset House in London from April 14, to May 1, 2023.

Last month, the Sony World photography Awards announced the 55 photographers crowned champions of their respective countries.