The ‘National & Regional Award’ winners of the 2025 Sony World Photography Awards has been unveiled, showing the work of some of the world’s most talented photographers.
This year’s awards ‘celebrate a wide variety of visual storytelling from all over the world’.
More than 419,000 images from more than 200 countries and areas were presented to the 2025 competition as a whole, with the national and local awards selected from the open category entries. The National and Regional Awards Program was set up by Sony and the World Photography Organization to support ‘local photographic communities around the world’, with 56 countries participating in the 2025 competition.
Among the scenes in the incredible winners gallery of this year are a ‘crash landing’ penguin in Antarctica, a lava-strived volcano in Indonesia and colorful Sahara sand that came to the French Alps.
The overall winners in the student, youth, open and professional competitions of the Sony World Photography Awards 2025 will be announced on April 16 and will be displayed as part of an exhibition in Somerset House, London (April 17 – May 5, 2025).
Scroll down to see MailOnline Travel’s choice of the best ‘National & Regional Award’ winners …
This incredible photo was titled ‘Crash Landing’ taken by South African photographer Werner de Kock at Baily Head in Antarctica, who is home to about 100,000 pairs of Chintrap penguins. To capture this action shot, De Kock looks at a ‘conveyor belt of penguins coming from the beach and going’ with its ‘focus on a single place’ as they return to the beach with the waves. It wins the National Award in South Africa
Serbian photographer Slobodan Blagojeviċ took this spectacular image in Montepulciano, a hill village in the Tuscany region in Italy. This makes the shortlist in the Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina Regional Awards
Syed Mahabubul Kader wins the Bangladesh National Awards with this spectacular image of workers who download paddy straw from a truck. Kader explains: ‘The rice straw is a by -product of farming used for different purposes, including livestock and fuel’
LEFT: This enchanting photo was taken in an ‘underwater cave’ on the South Korean island of Ulleungdo. Kyunghwan Oh takes third place in the national awards of South Korea with the image. RIGHT: This fascinating image of Dubrovnik was taken by Suer Celina, a Kosovan photographer
Zay Yar Lin, the winner of Myanmar National Awards, snap a ‘local farmer and his family who breakfast in the old Bagan, Myanmar. The family has been working in the paddy fields since the early morning
This powerful image of Mount Merapi, a highly active volcano in Indonesia, wins Sim Jhones Gozali, the Indonesian National Awards
This enchanting image of Studeni Potok (‘Stream’) Valley in Bosnia and Herzegovina was called by the name ‘(in) a visible path’. . The current becomes’ completely invisible ‘if it’ freezes’ later in winter ‘. Legend says the current was created by the ‘movement of an ancient snake -like animal’
This incredible photo of the Prokletije mountain range was taken by Montenegrin photographer Radojko Bošković of the Trojan Ridge on the border between Montenegro and Albania
Mohammed Muhtasib, the winner of the Saudi Arabia National Awards, took this enchanting shot at the Toji Railway Station in Dhaka in Bangladesh. At the time of this photo, the station was ‘active with people who returned from prayer’
Costa Rican photographer Berman Fernandez, who was shortlisted on the Latin America regional awards, captured this image in Argentine Patagonia. The incredible photo was cut when ‘the first sun’s rays on the face of Monte Fitz Roy’ hit and the ‘blue moon dropped to the horizon’
This fascinating photo of a black rhino on a ‘foggy morning’ wins the Kuwait National Awards for photographer Mohammed Mirza. The fog ‘add a dreamy quality to the scene’
LEFT: Peter Svoboda, a Slovak photographer, wins the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova Awards with this incredible image of ‘colored snow’ in the French Alps. The phenomenon occurred in the summer of 2024 and was caused by “winds that blow sand from the Sahara desert to the mountains”. RIGHT: The winner of the Thailand National Award, this beautiful aerial photo of a boat sailing in Thailand’s Phang Nga Bay, was captured by Kiyoshi Hijiki
A sweet image of a ‘young goat next to his mother’ was taken by Moldovan photographer Irina Zaiteva and was shortlisted on the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova Awards.
This beautiful image picks up the first prize in the South Korea National Awards. The photo was taken by Kibong Nam, and was cut into a waterfall in Iceland to showcase the country’s’ natural beauty ‘and was captured using a’ slow shutter speed ‘while the’ water spreads like a crown ‘
