NATIONAL & REGIONAL AWARDS: WINNERS ANNOUNCED

(MENAFN- Atteline) The Sony World Photography Awards announce the winning and shortlisted photographers of the 2026 National and Regional Awards 
UAE photographer Salem Alsawafi has won the Open Competition under the Lifestyle category.  
2026 exhibition opens at Somerset House, London from 17 April - 4 May 2026
The 2026 Awards additionally sees the introduction of the European Student Award and the India National Award 

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, 17 MARCH 2026 – The Sony World Photography Awards announce today the 2026 National and Regional Award winners and shortlists, recognising remarkable photographic talent from across the globe selected from the Awards’ competitions.  

UAE photographer Salem Alsawafi has won in the Open Competition for his image which was captured in Cappadocia, Turkey, under the Lifestyle category. “I’ll be happily proud of myself and will immediately contact my mother to tell her. She deserves to be happy and proud of her son. I will be very thankful and grateful to all of those who have supported me. I’m sure that if I won an award or been shortlisted then this would be a testimony of the hard work that have been done.” says Alsawafi 

The National & Regional Awards programme is an initiative set up by Sony and Creo under its photography strand, the World Photography Organisation, to support local photographic communities around the world. Across this year’s competitions, over 430,000 images from over 200 countries and territories were submitted. 

National and Regional Award winners were chosen from the Open, Professional and Student competitions this year highlighting global talent across a span of career stages. All single country National Award winners and 1st Place Regional Award winners are featured in the exhibition and receive Sony Digital Imaging equipment. The Professional Award winners and European Student Award shortlist are invited to participate in dedicated workshop days in London. 

PROFESSIONAL COMPETITION 

The Professional competition includes the Latin America Professional Award, the Japan National Award, and new to 2026, the India National Award. 

The Latin America Professional Award celebrates dynamic and inspiring photographic work currently created within the region. This year Citlali Fabian (Mexico) is awarded 1st Place for Bilha, Stories of my Sisters, which blends portraits and digital illustrations to bring to life the stories of inspiring women in southern Mexico, collaborating with activists and artists from Indigenous communities in the region. María Fernanda García Freire (Ecuador) is awarded 2nd Place for Study on Flying, a deeply personal project born from the photographer’s observations of her son’s admiration for birds. André Tezza (Brazil) is awarded 3rd Place for Everyday Structures, shining a light on the modest architecture of neighbourhood grocery stores in southern Brazil. 

The shortlisted photographers for the Latin America Professional Award are: 

Sebastian Di Domenico (Colombia) 
Sergio Meléndez Cava (Peru) 
Yris Pablo (Venezuela) 
Manuel Seoane (Bolivia) 
Bienvenido Velasco (Panama) 
Benjamin Villela (Chile) 
Irina Werning (Argentina) 

The India National Award recognises outstanding series by Indian photographers entering the Professional Competition. The inaugural winner is Avijit Ghosh for the series Keepers of Mangroves, which captures the conservation efforts of ‘tiger widows’ in Dayapur, India, where women who have lost their husbands to tiger attacks are helping to restore the tigers’ mangrove ecosystems, to try to alleviate conflict with the animals.  

The 2026 winner of the Japan National Award is Hayate Kurisu, for the series Living Photographs, which documents the experience of the photographer and his wife following the loss of a child to stillbirth, and the days spent together as a family before the cremation, exploring photography’s relationship to time and grief. With series ranging from explorations of local traditional costumes, to still lifes inspired by the structure of haiku poetry, and the stillness of the Antarctic landscape, the shortlisted photographers for the Japan National Award are: 

Mitsuaki Fujiwara 
Hajime Hirano 
Keiichiro Muramatsu 

STUDENT COMPETITION 

New to the 2026 Awards, the European Student Award recognises outstanding student projects, spotlighting the best emerging voices from across Europe from the Student competition. Teresa Halbreiter (Germany, University of Applied Sciences Hamburg) is the winner of the inaugural European Student Award for her series Stillgestanden (‘Attention!’), which explores the search for femininity and individuality in the male-dominated institution of the German Armed Forces, underlining the tension between obedience and self-assertion, toughness and vulnerability. 

From the aftermath of an environmental disaster, to stories of friendship and building community, the shortlisted photographers each weave compelling narratives of our time: 

 Bennet Böckstiegel (Germany, Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie)  
Laurie Broughton (UK, University of West England)  
Laura Anna Rossa (Belgium, LUCA School of Arts Sint Lukas Brussels) 
Albert Słowiński (Poland, Academy of Art in Szczecin) 

OPEN COMPETITION 

National and Regional Award Winners were chosen from a span of over 30 countries from across the Open competition, which celebrates the best single images from 2025. From sweeping landscapes, to tender portraits, and striking images of the natural world, the winners of the National and Regional Awards from the Open competition exemplify the ability of an individual image to tell a story.

The overall winners in the Student, Youth, Open and Professional competitions of the Sony World Photography Awards 2026 will be announced on 16 April and will go on display as part of the exhibition at Somerset House, London (17 April - 4 May 2026). For more information about upcoming announcements and winners please visit worldphoto.org. 

This year’s National & Regional Award winners are:  

​​OPEN COMPETITION 

​Bangladesh - Pinu Rahman 
​Cambodia - Sam Ang Ourng 
​Egypt - Yousef Naser 
​Indonesia - R. Eko Hardiyanto 
​Kazakhstan - Nelya Rachkova 
​Kuwait - Meshaal Alawadhi 
​Malaysia - Eng Tong Tan 
​Mongolia - Jargalsaikhan Bayarkhand 
​Myanmar - Kyaw Zayar Lin 
​Nepal - Ajay Maharjan 
​Nigeria - Obaroh Oghenemairo 
​Pakistan - Muhammad Asmar Hussain 
​Philippines - Rafael Salvador Ybañez 
​Qatar - Mohamed Nageeb 
​Republic of Korea - Heun Jung Kim (Winner)  
​Republic of Korea - Hanhoon Lee (2nd Place) 
​Republic of Korea - Nakheon Choi (3rd Place) 
​Saudi Arabia - Khalid Alsabt 
​Singapore - Chung Cheong Wong 
​South Africa - Greg du Toit 
​Sri Lanka - Lahiru Iddamalgoda 
​Taiwan - Wei-Cheng Tsai 
​Thailand - Pattarin Tridboonkrong 
​United Arab Emirates - Salem Alsawafi 
​Uzbekistan - Boris Nedosekov 
​Vietnam - Hieu Linh Nguyen 

​LATIN AMERICA REGIONAL AWARD SHORTLIST (OPEN COMPETITION) 

​Juan Jacobo Castillo Barrera (Colombia) - Winner 
​Livier Miroslava Ultreras (Mexico) - 2nd Place 
​Nicolas Aguiar (Uruguay) - 3rd Place 
​Camila Belén González Camarero (Argentina) 
​Fabiana Fregonesi (Brazil) 
​Camila Gattamelati (Chile) 
​Alvaro Cubero Vega (Costa Rica) 
​Johan Garrido Rivera (Ecuador) 
​María Candelaria Rivera (Nicaragua) 
​Sergio Vila (Peru) 

​PROFESSIONAL COMPETITION 

​LATIN AMERICA PROFESSIONAL AWARD SHORTLIST 

​Citlali Fabian (Mexico) - Winner 
​María Fernanda García Freire (Ecuador) - 2nd Place 
​André Tezza (Brazil) - 3rd Place 
​Irina Werning (Argentina) 
​Manuel Seoane (Bolivia) 
​Benjamin Villela (Chile) 
​Sebastian Di Domenico (Colombia) 
​Bienvenido Velasco (Panama) 
​Sergio Meléndez Cava (Peru) 
​Yris Pablo (Venezuela) 

​JAPAN NATIONAL AWARD SHORTLIST 
​Hayate Kurisu - Winner 
​Hajime Hirano 
​Keiichiro Muramatsu 
​Mitsuaki Fujiwara 

​INDIA NATIONAL AWARD WINNER 
​Avijit Ghosh 

​STUDENT COMPETITION 

​EUROPEAN STUDENT AWARD SHORTLIST 

​Teresa Halbreiter (Germany, University of Applied Sciences Hamburg) - Winner 

​Albert Słowiński (Poland, Academy of Art in Szczecin) 

​Bennet Böckstiegel (Germany, Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie)  

​Laura Anna Rossa (Belgium, LUCA School of Arts Sint Lukas Brussels) 

​Laurie Broughton (UK, University of West England) 


NOTES TO EDITORS 

For press inquiries, please contact: 

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A selection of press images is available to download on press.creoarts.com.  

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