2025 Sony World Photography Awards: Student and Youth photography shortlist

Travelling to a friend's family reunion in March, Marks was astounded by the vistas on his first trip to continental Europe. On the first day in France, the bright colours and airy, almost impressionistic qualities of the mountain felt like something entirely new to the photographer. With this photo, Marks intended to capture a slice of that world that he could bring home to his much different life in Los Angeles. Photo: © Oliver Marks, United States, Shortlist, Youth Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

B Salem shared how, due to sneaker culture, he can no longer afford the shoes he grew up wearing, as sneakers that were once affordable and popular among Black kids are now incredibly expensive. He gave the photographer one of his sneaker boxes, which was turned into a pinhole camera to create this portrait. A Darktown Cakewalk explores the beginnings of cultural transformation through pinhole photography, using objects tied to Black identity as both tools and symbols. The project emphasises the objects' histories and role in shaping cultural identity by inviting subjects to contribute personal items – such as Nike shoeboxes or Eco Styler gel containers – that are transformed into pinhole cameras. The resulting portraits are abstract, blurred and distorted, reflecting the fragmentation of identity when cultural practices and objects are displaced or appropriated. Photo: © Montenez Lowery, United States, Shortlist, Student Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

Aziza discussed how locs naturally form in Black hair – a cultural symbol now often appropriated by others. She highlighted the hypocrisy in this, especially given the discrimination Black people face for wearing their natural hair. Hair from the subject was laid on the film. A Darktown Cakewalk explores the beginnings of cultural transformation through pinhole photography, using objects tied to Black identity as both tools and symbols. Photo: © Montenez Lowery, United States, Shortlist, Student Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

A digital scan of photographic archives and the photographer’s family tree. Pauly’s great-grandmothers, Olga and Pacha, were born in Dniepropetrovsk (now Dnipro) in Ukraine. In 1942 they were deported to Germany as Ostarbeiter (‘workers from the East’) to perform forced labour. After the war, they arrived in France to embark on ‘a new beginning’. At the end of her life, Olga wrote her memoirs, which – for unknown reasons – were burned by her son. Through this project, the photographer aims to explore this forgotten story, combining family archives and staged photographs. Photo: © Louna Pauly, France, Shortlist, Student Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

Olga, her husband and their two sons in front of their house in the 1960s, blended with a photograph of the same house in 2024. Photo: © Louna Pauly, France, Shortlist, Student Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

A view of Valparaíso Women’s Penitentiary Centre on Camino La Pólvora, Valparaíso. This project explores the complexity of female prison spaces and the people who inhabit them, from the inmates to their families. The series consists of photographs of the architecture of the prisons, the neighbourhoods they are in, and the dynamics at the visitor and family member entrances. This project was carried out at the women's penitentiary centres of San Miguel, San Joaquín and Valparaíso, between March and July 2024. © Micaela Valdivia Medina, Peru, Shortlist, Student Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

One of the internal patios at Valparaíso Women's Penitentiary Centre. This project explores the complexity of female prison spaces and the people who inhabit them, from the inmates to their families. Photo: © Micaela Valdivia Medina, Peru, Shortlist, Student Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

The image portrays the majestic Schwarzberg mountain near the Maighels River, a tributary of the Rhine. It was taken in August during a three-day hiking trip with the photographer’s friends. Botta was extremely tired, but says the view ‘was just too good to not fly the drone.’ The light pierced through the clouds illuminating the scene in a dreamy way, so Botta took a three-picture panorama of the scene. The little house creates a dramatic sense of scale. Photo: © Matteo Botta, Switzerland, Shortlist, Youth Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

This photo was taken during a trip to Cameron Highlands, Malaysia, in March. After nearly a week of meticulously exploring Google Maps, Chong uncovered this breathtaking vantage point. The effort paid off when the photographer arrived at the location right before dawn. As the golden light of daybreak emerged, it gently unveiled layers of mist, casting an ethereal glow over the landscape. The photographer described the scene as ‘more mesmerizing than words can describe.’ Photo: © Landon Chong Chung Yi, Malaysia, Shortlist, Youth Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

DJ Broken Down shows a person fixing a broken-down car which looks like a DJ turntable. Hasanoff took the image in May 2024, inspired by artist Gregory Crewdson to use light to evoke a story. Photo: © Joshua Hasanoff, Australia, Shortlist, Youth Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

This photograph was taken in the centre of Auckland looking down on different construction workers going about their duties. They are all doing their own thing but are connected in this image by the colour orange. This series shows the early stages of Auckland’s Future Rail Tāmaki Makaurau project, which will introduce new underground train lines to the city. This project aims to show the importance of the construction workers involved in making it a reality who often go unnoticed, recognising their role in the development, rather than seeing them as ‘interruptions’ in city life. Shot within active construction zones, the colour orange has been emphasised in the photographs to symbolically highlight their significance during the foundation stages of the project. Photo: © Joel Potter, New Zealand, Shortlist, Student Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

This series shows the early stages of Auckland’s Future Rail Tāmaki Makaurau project, which will introduce new underground train lines to the city. Photo: © Joel Potter, New Zealand, Shortlist, Student Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

Rita loved Williamsburg Bridge, so the photographer’s dad left this sticker there in her honour. He now touches it every time he walks the bridge. The photographer’s mother, Rita Stein-Grollman, passed away on 24 January 2023 from early-onset dementia. This project is one of Grollman’s ways of processing her mother’s passing, not only as a tribute but also as a way of keeping her memory alive. The photographs were taken in and around the family’s old homes in Baltimore and New York City, an experience the photographer describes as healing, although ‘my grieving will not end anytime soon’. Photo: © Ilana Grollman, United States, Shortlist, Student Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

The photographer and her father, sitting at the dining table in their New York apartment. The image is supposed to feel dream-like and to represent the idea that grief sometimes does not feel real. The photographer’s mother, Rita Stein-Grollman, passed away on 24 January 2023 from early-onset dementia. Photo: © Ilana Grollman, United States, Shortlist, Student Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

Grandma: the owner of the house. As a child during World War II, the photographer’s grandmother had next to nothing, so she learned to cherish everything around her, be it an object or a living creature. Today, she arranges her things with tenderness, creating new landscapes with her treasures. This care for the smallest things was the start of the photographer’s fascination with the ‘chaos’ of her grandmother's house, which she hopes to preserve through her photographs. Photo: © Honorata Kornacka, Poland, Shortlist, Student Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

The photographer’s grandmother is a natural part of the house. As a child during World War II, the photographer’s grandmother had next to nothing, so she learned to cherish everything around her, be it an object or a living creature. Photo: © Honorata Kornacka, Poland, Shortlist, Student Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

Dian Ji Wu took this photo during summer break in 2024, at Venice Beach Skatepark in LA during golden hour. The photographer captured this image of a skater mid-air, silhouetted against the sunset, expressing the raw energy of that moment. He says this image ‘made me feel a sense of passion and freedom.’ Photo: © Dian-Ji Wu, Taiwan, Shortlist, Youth Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

Wanderer on Mars was taken at the Bentonite Hills in Utah, outside of Capitol Reef National Park. Gonzales compares the experience of hiking in the hills to feeling ‘as if I were on Mars.’ Her heart beat, not only with exhaustion from the intense hiking through the terrain, but also from awe at the unique beauty of the diverse and empty landscape. After slipping and stumbling up the rocky dune, Gonzalez shot quickly as she was sliding. Photo: © Claire Gonzalez, United States, Shortlist, Youth Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

This photograph celebrates Ugwuedeh’s Māori and Igbo heritage, uniting both cultures. Taken in September 2024 in a bush near her home, it features a Māori kākahu and a vibrant African-inspired garment. The photographer carefully planned the scene, creating props to reflect both cultures. Speedlights and an LED panel illuminate the models, highlighting the colours in the frame, and connecting the photographer’s dual identity. The image captures a moment of stillness and natural beauty. Photo: © Chidima Ugwuedeh, New Zealand, Shortlist, Youth Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

Isabella (31) has been trying to get pregnant through fertility treatment for two years. ‘I've been down – I've cried and shouted and screamed. We've also taken breaks along the way because it has been so mentally exhausting.’ Involuntary childlessness and the resulting fertility treatments are a growing trend in Denmark, and experts warn that issues related to underpopulation will impact the country economically far sooner than climate change and immigration. One in eight children in Denmark are born through fertility treatment, and this project explores treatments among women and men across the country. The process is lengthy, the medication is harsh and, in the end, the outcome can be devastating as families lose the dream of what could have been. Photo: © Peter Stougård Maunsbach, Denmark, Shortlist, Student Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

The journey to the mine in Zouérat. From a distance, people coming down from the iron wagons can be seen. The longest train across the Sahara dates back to the 1960s, when rich deposits of iron ore were discovered in northern Mauritania. A railway was built to transport raw materials from the mine in Zouérat to the port of Nouadhibou. Today, people travelling this route go about 704 kilometres through one of the world’s most inhospitable landscapes. With one passenger car, which is not affordable to all, many travel for twenty hours on mounds of iron ore, across the three kilometres of train carriages. Photo: © Albert Słowiński, Poland, Shortlist, Student Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025

The longest train across the Sahara dates back to the 1960s, when rich deposits of iron ore were discovered in northern Mauritania. Photo: © Albert Słowiński, Poland, Shortlist, Student Competition, Sony World Photography Awards 2025 DM