The World Photography Organisation has announced the category winners and shortlists of the Sony World Photography Awards 2023 Open competition. This contest recognizes the best single shots from 2022, and it’s a truly marvelous collection of images from all over the world.

We’ll have to wait a bit more for the overall winner of the contest. But we bring you a winner of each of the ten categories, plus a selection of shortlisted images. And to be honest, there are so many exquisite images, that I had a really hard time narrowing down the selection.

[Related reading: Take a trip around the world with 2023 Sony World Photography Awards’ National Award winners]

Nearly half a million images from over 200 countries and territories were submitted to the Sony World Photography Awards 2023. Out of those, over 200,000 were entered into the Open competition. Can you imagine the tough choices the judges had to make choosing the winner? But an even tougher choice is yet to be made, as the category winners will go on to compete for the Open Photographer of the Year title and a $5,000 USD prize.

The overall winner of the Open competition will be announced at the Awards’ ceremony in London on April 13, 2023. Selected winning and shortlisted images will be shown as part of the Sony World Photography Awards exhibition at Somerset House in London from 14 April-1 May 2023. You can find out more on Sony World Photography Awards website, and now I leave you to enjoy the photos from this year’s selection.

Category winners

Sony World Photography Awards 2023 Open contest, shortlists selection