Sony World Competition — The year's best environmental photography
The Sony World Competition announced the finalists and shortlists for their 2026 professional awards. The Awards spotlights photographers telling the stories of our time. Here is the selection of images from the professional competition in the environment category.
While the Palisades Fire raged on in January 2025, it left a state of pure chaos in its wake. The story of the flames is never in the heat itself, but in the destruction it leaves behind — in the houses that have disappeared in their entirety, the metal exoskeletons that remain, melted children’s toys, and ash-soaked swimming pools. As residents of the community fled what would come to be known as the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles County history, some went to Santa Monica Pier to witness the horror from afar. (Photo: Jacob Paley, United States, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026)
Like much of the world, large parts of Iran are facing a long-term drought crisis. Lake Urmia, in northwestern Iran, was once the largest saltwater lake in West Asia. It was a sanctuary for migratory and indigenous animals, and every year hundreds of tourists visited its shores. However, decades of drought, rising summer temperatures that accelerate evaporation, and increasing water demands from agriculture have shrunk the lake dramatically. Its water volume fell from 30 billion cubic metres in 1999, to just half a billion cubic metres in 2013, and today it is a barren salt marsh. Salt storms rising from its dry bed pose health hazards to surrounding regions, with more than 14 million people indirectly impacted by this environmental catastrophe. Deserted villages and small towns now surround the lake, as families have been forced to leave their homes, livelihoods and cherished memories behind. Lake Urmia stands as a silent witness to environmental neglect — a haunting reminder of what is lost when nature’s balance is disrupted. (Photo: Hossein Sadri Nobarzad, Iran, Islamic Republic Of, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026) Shot in Chad, Senegal and Djibouti, this series explores the trials and tribulations of Africa's Great Green Wall (GGW), one of the most ambitious environmental projects ever undertaken. The multibillion dollar initiative hopes to re-green a vast strip of land stretching across the entire continent, in order to fight desertification and boost food security, among other things. It has been beset by problems, though, and many of its projects have failed. Yet even in the face of daunting odds, local communities from Dakar to Djibouti are striving to keep the dream alive. (Photo: Tommy Trenchard, United Kingdom, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026) Jinê Land: Where Women Keep the Earth Alive tells the story of women shaping the ecological and social future of Rojava in northeast Syria. In a region that is still recovering from war and fragmentation, women lead the fight for environmental restoration, sustainable agriculture, and community self-governance. Since 2012, Kurdish, Assyrian, Arab, and Armenian communities have self-organised under a model inspired by democratic confederalism, integrating women’s liberation and ecology. Women manage schools, cooperatives, health centres, and local councils, ensuring their leadership in both social and ecological spheres. Villages such as Jinwar embody this vision: female-led, sustainable, and resilient, offering a space for education, self-reliance and communal life. Through photography, this project captures the intersection of freedom, ecology, and community, revealing a radical social experiment where women are both the stewards of the land and the architects of a new society. (Photo: Matteo Trevisan, Italy, Finalist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026) In 2025, a typhoon struck Taiwan, causing severe damage along its southwestern coast. Among the affected areas were the offshore solar panels in Chiayi, which were severely damaged. This series documents the work needed to clean up and recover the debris. (Photo: Yi-Hsuan Lin, Taiwan, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026) Another photo from the 2025 typhoon in Taiwan. (Photo: Yi-Hsuan Lin, Taiwan, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026) In Mexico, women are defending their lands against industrial projects, deforestation, water crises and climate change. In Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities, defending territory also preserves cultural memory, where nature and identity are one. Through collaborative creative processes in which women are invited to interact with the natural element with which they feel most connected, this project fuses body, gesture and landscape to create an immersive experience that celebrates environmental defenders and evokes our sensory and emotional connection with the living world. (Photo: Mahé Elipe, France, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026) Part of the project capturing women in Mexico who are defending their lands against industrial projects, deforestation, water crises and climate change. (Photo: Mahé Elipe, France, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026) Forests have long been narrated as spaces where only vegetation exists. Yet science and history reveal that they have always been cultural territories, inhabited and reshaped by multiple human and non-human groups over time. Notes on How to Build a Forest is a photographic project developed in Ecuador, in the territories of Mache Chindul and Yunguilla — landscapes marked by layered histories of settlement and relationships with the forest. Through documentary and experimental photography that includes infrared, thermal, and pinhole techniques, as well as community archives intervened with fungi, the photographer invites us ‘to imagine how other organisms perceive the forest, and how the forest, in turn, observes us’. In dialogue with scientific knowledge, the work constructs a polyphonic narrative that understands forests as plural, complex, and cultural spaces, expanding the ways in which conservation can be conceived. (Photo: Isadora Romero, Ecuador, Finalist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026) Part of the Notes on How to Build a Forest photographic project. (Photo: Isadora Romero, Ecuador, Finalist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026) Beofhód — ‘life beneath the sod’ in Irish — evokes the primal significance of bogs in Celtic tradition. The series examines the cultural and environmental aspects of bogs in Ireland and contemplates themes of social and environmental justice, topographical mapping and the evolving perception of peatlands in an era of de-industrialisation. Although urgent ecological imperatives have ended large-scale peat extraction, they have also created tension with small-scale harvesting for domestic use, which still persists. Referencing Joseph Beuys’ assertion that bogs are ‘the liveliest elements in the European landscape’ and ‘preservers of ancient history,’ this work reflects on the endangered status of these habitats in the artist’s post-industrial surroundings. In this project, bogs are used as ‘a metaphor for Ireland and the Irish psyche, and for local, human and personal exploration of a global issue.’ (Photo: Shane Hynan, Ireland, Finalist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026) Another picture in Shane Hynan's Beofhód series, evoking the primal significance of bogs in Celtic tradition. (Photo: Shane Hynan, Ireland, Finalist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026) Once the lifeblood of Dhaka, the Buriganga River now flows as a toxic artery through the capital of Bangladesh. Thousands of factories dump untreated chemical waste into its waters, while residents use the river as an open landfill. Years of pollution have erased its flora and fauna, turning the river into a black, foul-smelling stream. The photographer poses the question: ‘Does Bangladesh have time to reverse this collapse?’ (Photo: Borja Abargues, Spain, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026) Another photo of Dhaka's Buriganga River. (Photo: Borja Abargues, Spain, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026) This documentary series, created in the Galápagos Islands, observes the fragile coexistence between Galápagos sea lions (Zalophus wollebaeki), an endangered species, and an urban landscape shaped by the steady rise of tourism. It follows a naturally territorial species as it navigates beaches, docks, and port streets — spaces increasingly shared with residents and visitors. These images do not seek spectacle but rather reveal a gradual loss of habitat and a growing uncertainty about how this coexistence can endure. The work invites a slower gaze and a reflection on how we inhabit the islands, and on the collective responsibility to protect a singular ecosystem under constant pressure. (Photo: Eduardo Valenzuela, Ecuador, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026) Another image from Eduardo Valenzuela's documentary series observing the fragile coexistence between Galápagos sea lions (Zalophus wollebaeki), an endangered species, and an urban landscape shaped by the steady rise of tourism. (Photo: Eduardo Valenzuela, Ecuador, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026)
/file/attachments/orphans/3901_10523_HosseinSadriNobarzad_IranIslamicRepublicOf_Professional_Environment_2026_441939.jpg "Like much of the world, large parts of Iran are facing a long-term drought crisis. Lake Urmia, in northwestern Iran, was once the largest saltwater lake in West Asia. It was a sanctuary for migratory and indigenous animals, and every year hundreds of tourists visited its shores. However, decades of drought, rising summer temperatures that accelerate evaporation, and increasing water demands from agriculture have shrunk the lake dramatically. Its water volume fell from 30 billion cubic metres in 1999, to just half a billion cubic metres in 2013, and today it is a barren salt marsh. Salt storms rising from its dry bed pose health hazards to surrounding regions, with more than 14 million people indirectly impacted by this environmental catastrophe. Deserted villages and small towns now surround the lake, as families have been forced to leave their homes, livelihoods and cherished memories behind. Lake Urmia stands as a silent witness to environmental neglect — a haunting reminder of what is lost when nature’s balance is disrupted. (Photo: Hossein Sadri Nobarzad, Iran, Islamic Republic Of, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026)")
/file/attachments/orphans/3907_10567_TommyTrenchard_SouthAfrica_Professional_Environment_2026_431170.jpg "Shot in Chad, Senegal and Djibouti, this series explores the trials and tribulations of Africa's Great Green Wall (GGW), one of the most ambitious environmental projects ever undertaken. The multibillion dollar initiative hopes to re-green a vast strip of land stretching across the entire continent, in order to fight desertification and boost food security, among other things. It has been beset by problems, though, and many of its projects have failed. Yet even in the face of daunting odds, local communities from Dakar to Djibouti are striving to keep the dream alive. (Photo: Tommy Trenchard, United Kingdom, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026)")
/file/attachments/orphans/3889_10431_MatteoTrevisan_Italy_Professional_Environment_2026_191802.jpg "Jinê Land: Where Women Keep the Earth Alive tells the story of women shaping the ecological and social future of Rojava in northeast Syria. In a region that is still recovering from war and fragmentation, women lead the fight for environmental restoration, sustainable agriculture, and community self-governance. Since 2012, Kurdish, Assyrian, Arab, and Armenian communities have self-organised under a model inspired by democratic confederalism, integrating women’s liberation and ecology. Women manage schools, cooperatives, health centres, and local councils, ensuring their leadership in both social and ecological spheres. Villages such as Jinwar embody this vision: female-led, sustainable, and resilient, offering a space for education, self-reliance and communal life. Through photography, this project captures the intersection of freedom, ecology, and community, revealing a radical social experiment where women are both the stewards of the land and the architects of a new society. (Photo: Matteo Trevisan, Italy, Finalist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026)")
/file/attachments/orphans/3905_10555_Yi-HsuanLin_Taiwan_Professional_Environment_2026_517072.jpg "In 2025, a typhoon struck Taiwan, causing severe damage along its southwestern coast. Among the affected areas were the offshore solar panels in Chiayi, which were severely damaged. This series documents the work needed to clean up and recover the debris. (Photo: Yi-Hsuan Lin, Taiwan, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026)")
/file/attachments/orphans/3905_10553_Yi-HsuanLin_Taiwan_Professional_Environment_2026_432190.jpg "Another photo from the 2025 typhoon in Taiwan. (Photo: Yi-Hsuan Lin, Taiwan, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026)")
/file/attachments/orphans/3899_10515_MahElipe_Mexico_Professional_Environment_2026_447797.jpg "In Mexico, women are defending their lands against industrial projects, deforestation, water crises and climate change. In Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities, defending territory also preserves cultural memory, where nature and identity are one. Through collaborative creative processes in which women are invited to interact with the natural element with which they feel most connected, this project fuses body, gesture and landscape to create an immersive experience that celebrates environmental defenders and evokes our sensory and emotional connection with the living world. (Photo: Mahé Elipe, France, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026)")
/file/attachments/orphans/3899_10509_MahElipe_Mexico_Professional_Environment_2026_716409.jpg "Part of the project capturing women in Mexico who are defending their lands against industrial projects, deforestation, water crises and climate change. (Photo: Mahé Elipe, France, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026)")
/file/attachments/orphans/3897_10499_IsadoraRomero_Ecuador_Professional_Environment_2026_266295.jpg "Forests have long been narrated as spaces where only vegetation exists. Yet science and history reveal that they have always been cultural territories, inhabited and reshaped by multiple human and non-human groups over time. Notes on How to Build a Forest is a photographic project developed in Ecuador, in the territories of Mache Chindul and Yunguilla — landscapes marked by layered histories of settlement and relationships with the forest. Through documentary and experimental photography that includes infrared, thermal, and pinhole techniques, as well as community archives intervened with fungi, the photographer invites us ‘to imagine how other organisms perceive the forest, and how the forest, in turn, observes us’. In dialogue with scientific knowledge, the work constructs a polyphonic narrative that understands forests as plural, complex, and cultural spaces, expanding the ways in which conservation can be conceived. (Photo: Isadora Romero, Ecuador, Finalist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026)")
/file/attachments/orphans/3897_10495_IsadoraRomero_Ecuador_Professional_Environment_2026_708305.jpg "Part of the Notes on How to Build a Forest photographic project. (Photo: Isadora Romero, Ecuador, Finalist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026)")
/file/attachments/orphans/3895_10485_ShaneHynan_Ireland_Professional_Environment_2026_869260.jpg "Beofhód — ‘life beneath the sod’ in Irish — evokes the primal significance of bogs in Celtic tradition. The series examines the cultural and environmental aspects of bogs in Ireland and contemplates themes of social and environmental justice, topographical mapping and the evolving perception of peatlands in an era of de-industrialisation. Although urgent ecological imperatives have ended large-scale peat extraction, they have also created tension with small-scale harvesting for domestic use, which still persists. Referencing Joseph Beuys’ assertion that bogs are ‘the liveliest elements in the European landscape’ and ‘preservers of ancient history,’ this work reflects on the endangered status of these habitats in the artist’s post-industrial surroundings. In this project, bogs are used as ‘a metaphor for Ireland and the Irish psyche, and for local, human and personal exploration of a global issue.’ (Photo: Shane Hynan, Ireland, Finalist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026)")
/file/attachments/orphans/3895_10475_ShaneHynan_Ireland_Professional_Environment_2026_135032.jpg "Another picture in Shane Hynan's Beofhód series, evoking the primal significance of bogs in Celtic tradition. (Photo: Shane Hynan, Ireland, Finalist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026)")
/file/attachments/orphans/3893_10463_BorjaAbargues_Spain_Professional_Environment_2026_267684.jpg "Once the lifeblood of Dhaka, the Buriganga River now flows as a toxic artery through the capital of Bangladesh. Thousands of factories dump untreated chemical waste into its waters, while residents use the river as an open landfill. Years of pollution have erased its flora and fauna, turning the river into a black, foul-smelling stream. The photographer poses the question: ‘Does Bangladesh have time to reverse this collapse?’ (Photo: Borja Abargues, Spain, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026)")
/file/attachments/orphans/3893_10461_BorjaAbargues_Spain_Professional_Environment_2026_455372.jpg "Another photo of Dhaka's Buriganga River. (Photo: Borja Abargues, Spain, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026)")
/file/attachments/orphans/3891_10457_EduardoValenzuela_Ecuador_Professional_Environment_2026_702018.jpg "This documentary series, created in the Galápagos Islands, observes the fragile coexistence between Galápagos sea lions (Zalophus wollebaeki), an endangered species, and an urban landscape shaped by the steady rise of tourism. It follows a naturally territorial species as it navigates beaches, docks, and port streets — spaces increasingly shared with residents and visitors. These images do not seek spectacle but rather reveal a gradual loss of habitat and a growing uncertainty about how this coexistence can endure. The work invites a slower gaze and a reflection on how we inhabit the islands, and on the collective responsibility to protect a singular ecosystem under constant pressure. (Photo: Eduardo Valenzuela, Ecuador, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026)")
/file/attachments/orphans/3891_10453_EduardoValenzuela_Ecuador_Professional_Environment_2026_195449.jpg "Another image from Eduardo Valenzuela's documentary series observing the fragile coexistence between Galápagos sea lions (Zalophus wollebaeki), an endangered species, and an urban landscape shaped by the steady rise of tourism. (Photo: Eduardo Valenzuela, Ecuador, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026)")
While the Palisades Fire raged on in January 2025, it left a state of pure chaos in its wake. The story of the flames is never in the heat itself, but in the destruction it leaves behind — in the houses that have disappeared in their entirety, the metal exoskeletons that remain, melted children’s toys, and ash-soaked swimming pools. As residents of the community fled what would come to be known as the most destructive wildfire in Los Angeles County history, some went to Santa Monica Pier to witness the horror from afar. (Photo: Jacob Paley, United States, Shortlist, Professional Competition, Environment, Sony World Photography Awards 2026) 
