- SWPA is one of the most prestigious photography contests in the world
- This year it attracted more than 430,000 entries from more than 200 countries.
- The winner takes home a grand prize of $25,000 and Sony photography equipment.
I had the pleasure of attending the Sony World Photography Awards 2026 in London, where the overall winner and winners of 10 categories presented their photography projects to the press.
Legendary street photographer Joel Meyerowitz was also on hand to receive a lifetime achievement award and looked as handsome as ever.
It has been a real pleasure and, if you have the opportunity, I encourage you to visit the competition exhibition, which contains more than 300 works, is located at Somerset House in London and is open to the public from April 17 to May 4, 2026.
Article continues below.
In previous years, it seemed like AI was an unavoidable theme in the contest, but in 2026, it seems that that AI storm has passed and we simply enjoy the photography and the stories that inspire the works.
I had a long and fascinating chat with wildlife category winner Will Burrard-Lucas and will share my conversation very soon, but for now, check out some of the category award winners below.
When the information is available (I’ve noted what camera gear was used in the gallery below), there has been such surprising variety this year, proving once again that gear isn’t the be all and end all of great photography.
SWPA 2026 category winners and their team
Image 1 of 10
Having covered photo contest news for the past three years working in a gear-focused role as TechRadar’s camera editor, I’m always happy to see a variety of camera gear used among the winning entrants, and SWPA 2026 is no different.
Take Will Burrard Lucas’ wildlife series: he retrofits his own camera traps with inexpensive Canon EOS 6D cameras, a necessary compromise because he often requires multiple cameras in difficult environments, but he still praised the quality these older DSLRs offered.
Or what about the winners of the ‘Documentary’ and ‘Perspectives’ categories, Santiago Mesa from Colombia and Seungho Kim from Korea? who used a Fujifilm X-Pro 3 and a Fujifilm X100 VI, respectively, for their reportage photography projects.
At the other end of the spectrum is ‘Sports’ category winner Todd Anthony from New Zealand, who used a large format Phase One camera, costing tens of thousands, for his monochrome images of jockeys and their horses.
Photography can be a beautiful thing and many of us already have the tools necessary to create. Who knows, maybe one day you can have your images hanging on the walls of Somerset House.
Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to receive news, reviews and opinions from our experts in your feeds. Be sure to click the Follow button!
And of course you can also follow TechRadar on TikTok for news, reviews, unboxings in video form and receive regular updates from us on WhatsApp also.
