The Professional competition is judged on a body of work. Photographers must submit a minimum of five (5) and a maximum of ten (10) images and all submissions must be accompanied by a series description.
Please note that if you enter the Professional competition you cannot enter the Open or Youth competitions.
1.1 By entering the Competition, You agree and acknowledge that the World Photography Organisation is permitted to receive your registration data. All personal information will be used by the World Photography Organisation by its Privacy Policy.
1.2.1 The Competition is free to enter.
1.2.2 The Professional competition is open to all Photographers entering a body of work.
1.3 All Entrants must be over 18.
1.4 By entering the Competition You hereby accept these Competition Rules and the Terms and Conditions.
1.5 Entries must be submitted by 13 January, 2026 at 13.00 GMT
1.6 Please note that if you enter the Professional competition you cannot enter the Open or Youth competitions.
2. To enter, you must upload your image via the World Photography Organisation website (www.worldphoto.org) or any of the official Sony World Photography Awards’ website and follow the on-screen instructions carefully.
2.1 Image Entry criteria:
Published work may have been taken at any point in history, but must have been published between the dates of 1 January 2025 and 13 January 2026.
Up to 20% of work can be published on your personal website and social media i.e. two images can be published on personal platforms if submitting a series of 8-10 images. One image can be published if submitting a series of 5-7 images.
Un-published work entered into the competition may have been taken at any point in history but never been shown publicly. Once unpublished work has been entered, it cannot be entered again as published work in the future year of the Awards’ competition.
2.2 Images should be no smaller than 1MB and no larger than 5MB. Images should be JPEG files.
All images must be saved in the sRGB colour model and EXIF data must be left in the image file.
All Entrants, if they are selected amongst the shortlist, must be able to supply a high resolution image suitable for printing in exhibitions should the image be required.
3.1 Entries will be judged between January 14, 2026 and January 31, 2026.
3.2 The three finalists (1st, 2nd and 3rd place) and a shortlist of up to seven photographers from each category will be selected and announced prior to April 2026. Category winners and overall competition winners will be announced in April 2026. The finalists and shortlist will be notified by email in January.
3.3.1 The winner of each category will be notified by email
3.4 The decision of the Judges and the World Photography Organisation is final and no negotiation will be entered into with respect to any such decision.
3.5 You may enter a minimum of five (5) and a maximum of ten (10) images per category, and may enter as many categories as you wish, however you cannot enter the same series or images into more than one category.
3.5.1 Judging will be based on the portfolio of work entered for each category.
3.5.2. During the judging process successful entries may be moved to a different category to the category they originally entered into. The decision will be made at the discretion of the judging panel. Successful entrants will be notified of the change over email.
4. Your Entry may feature manipulation, but where Entries are manipulated, the extent of which must be described in the image description section when submitting. For the avoidance of doubt, all Entries must originally be from either an analogue or digital photograph which may have then been manipulated. Computer generated content cannot be the origin of the Entry. Should a question arise through the judging process regarding the extent of your Entry’s manipulation you may be requested to submit the original photograph and image file to verify.
4.1 The World Photography Organisation reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to disqualify and remove any entry that does not comply with the following requirements, even after the entry is submitted on the Website. You warrant and represent, in respect of each entry submitted by You (“Entry”), as follows:
4.1.1 You are the sole owner and author of each Entry
4.1.2 You have the right to make Your Entry available to the Competition
4.1.3 Each Entry does not contain personally identifiable information about you or any other person(s)
4.1.4 Each Entry does not contain any infringing, threatening, false, misleading, abusive, harassing, libellous,defamatory, vulgar, obscene, scandalous, inflammatory, pornographic or profane content
4.1.5 Each Entry does not contain any material that could constitute or encourage conduct that would be considered a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any law
4.1.6 Each Entry does not infringe upon the copyrights, trademarks, contract rights, or any other intellectual property rights of any third person or entity, or violate any person’s rights of privacy or publicity, including:
4.1.6.1 trademarks owned by third parties
4.1.6.2 copyrighted materials owned by third parties (including movie dialogue or musical compositions)
4.1.6.3 names, likenesses, voices or other characteristics identifying celebrities or other public figures, living or dead
4.1.7 Entries which contain any commercial content that promotes any product or service other than that of the World Photography Organisation.
4.1.8 Entries containing screen credits
4.1.9 No animals were harmed or manipulated in the making of the image
4.1.10 Any use of archival images
4.2 You agree to fully indemnify the World Photography Organisation in respect of all royalties, fees and any other monies owing to any person by reason of Your breaching any of the foregoing.
4.3 You confirm that each person depicted in the Entry has granted permission to be portrayed as shown. Any costumes, props or other materials used must be rented or borrowed with the permission of the owner, and all other relevant permissions must have been obtained.
4.4 In accordance with clause 3.2 and 3.3 all shortlisted and winning photographers will be contacted by email. If the World Photography Organisation does not hear from the entrant by the date specified in any correspondence and is therefore not able to ratify the entry that entrant will be disqualified and replaced by another photographer.
5. Intentionally deleted.
6. The World Photography Organisation may run an online rating process whereby members of the public may vote for a favourite photograph. If there is sufficient evidence (in the World Photography Organisation’s sole discretion) to suggest malpractice and manipulation of the rating process, then the World Photography Organisation has the right to remove the relevant Entry or Entries and, if necessary, award the prize to a different Entrant. The decisions of the World Photography Organisation are final.
7.1 The World Photography Organisation recognises You, the author of the image, retain full ownership of the copyright in each Entry.
7.2 All Entrants understand that any image submitted to the Competition may be used by the World Photography Organisation, and its Event Partners, for marketing and promotional purposes of You the author and the Event only, for a maximum of three years after April 2024. Please refer to clause 7.4. You hereby grant the World Photography Organisation a non-exclusive, irrevocable licence in each Entry throughout the world for three years in all media for any use connected to the promotion of You the author and the Sony World Photography Awards Event and/or Competition, including, but not limited too:
(a) judging the Competition
(b) displaying the winning and shortlisted entries at public exhibitions promoting the World Photography Organisation and organised by the World Photography Organisation
(c) inclusion within the Website, a World Photography Awards book, magazine or similar
(d) inclusion within any materials promoting of the Competition and / or any exhibition organised by the World Photography Organisation, in the promotion of the World Photography Organisation
(e) inclusion on Competition- and exhibition-related products to be sold by the World Photography Organisation or any third party following the individual agreement by the author
(f) sub-licensing the Entries to the press for reproduction in connection with the Competition and any exhibition
(g) allowing viewers of the Website to view images on a computer screen, PDA or mobile telephone and store such pages in electronic form on disk or on a PDA or mobile telephone (but not on any server or other storage device connected to a network) for their personal, non-commercial use only. Please also refer to clause 9.
7.3 All Entrants understand that the image information, including image name and description, may be shared with Event Partners and media as per clause 7.1, 7.2 and 8. For the avoidance of doubt the “image information” does not include any personal information of You the author.
7.3.1 Should entrants elect to opt-in to sharing data, the email data and name will be shared with our event partners.
7.4 For media purposes in accordance with clause 7.2 and to promote your winning images the World Photography Organisation will choose a maximum of two to three images, from the series entered for media use; should media require further images for publication this will be done in consultation with You.
7.5 The World Photography Organisation reserves the right to select which images from within the winning series that will be featured within the curated exhibit and such curation is made in its sole discretion. Associated series descriptions, image captions and bios may also be edited to fit within the context of the exhibition, book or other material connected to the Awards.
7.6 All entrants are required to enter under their correct names, and all entrants are responsible for providing this information accurately. The Awards programme is structured around providing opportunities and exposure to individual photographers and as such we do not award anonymously or accept pseudonyms.
8. Any photograph used by the World Photography Organisation shall carry a credit line. Any failure to provide such credit line shall not be deemed to be a breach, as long as the World Photography Organisation uses its reasonable endeavours to rectify such failure within a reasonable period from the date of notice of such failure.
8a. All entrants understand the World Photography Organisation may need to crop your image or add text or logos when used specifically to promote your work or the Awards for online promotional purposes only.
9. The World Photography Organisation assumes no responsibility for any incorrect, inaccurate or incomplete information, whether caused by website users or by any of the equipment or programming associated with or utilised in the Competition, and the World Photography Organisation assumes no responsibility for technical, hardware or software failure of any kind, for lost network connections, garbled computer transmissions, other problems or technical malfunctions with regard to the Competition. The World Photography Organisation assumes no responsibility for any error, omission, corruption, interruption, deletion, defect, delay in operation or transmission, communications line failure, theft or destruction or unauthorized access to or alteration of Entries. The World Photography Organisation is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any telephone network or lines, computer on-line systems, servers, computer equipment, software, failure of any e-mail addressed to the World Photography Organisation on account of technical problems, human error or traffic congestion on the internet or any website, or any combination thereof, including any injury or damage to Your or any other person's computer related to or resulting from participation or downloading any materials in the Competition. If for any reason a contestant’s entry cannot be viewed or is not capable of running as planned, including infection by computer viruses, bugs, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud or technical failures, the World Photography Organisation assumes no responsibility.
10. In no event will the World Photography Organisation, its parents, affiliates, subsidiaries and related companies, Event Partners, its advertising or promotion agencies, or its officers, directors, employees, shareholders, representatives or agents be responsible or liable for any damages or losses of any kind, including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special or punitive damages arising out of any Entrant’s access to and use of the Website. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, everything on the Website is provided "as is"without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranty of merchantability, fitness for purpose or use or non-infringement.
11. You agree to participate in related publicity and to the use of Your name and likeness for the purposes of advertising, promotion and publicity without additional compensation.
12. If entrants are unable to supply a high resolution image of at least 5MB and 300ppi their entry may be disqualified.
13. There are no cash alternatives available for prize winners.
13.1 Prize winners may receive digital imaging equipment as part of their prize and in such cases equipment may be sent to them. In some countries income tax may be applicable to prizes. It is the winner’s responsibility to pay any income taxes related to the prize in compliance with their own country’s law. In such cases the Winner agrees to indemnify and keep the World Photography Organisation, its parents, affiliates or partners indemnified against any tax liability, charges, fines, penalties or interest or any other liability incurred by the winner which liability arose as a result of prizes provided to the Winner.
13.2 The Photographer of the Year prize offers the winner a solo presentation at the Sony World Photography Awards exhibition at Somerset House the following year. The exhibited images must comply with the World Photography Organisation’s rules. The winner will work closely with the World Photography Organisation and the exhibition curator on the allocated space, presentation and curation of the exhibition. Final decisions on space, production and cost remains with the World Photography Organisation. Any associated travel and accommodation costs will not be covered by the World Photography Organisation.
14. Winners will be announced online and at a black-tie ceremony in London.
Promoter: World Photography Organisation, Creo Arts Group Limited, 9 Manchester Square, London, United Kingdom.
