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The 2026 Sony World Photography Awards recognized two nature-focused winners: Will Burrard-Lucas in the Professional Wildlife & Nature category, for Crossing Point, and Klaus Hellmich in the Open competition’s Natural World & Wildlife category, for Arctic Fox in Blizzard. Hellmich’s image shows a blue Arctic fox caught in a blizzard on Norway’s Varanger Peninsula.
Who won the 2026 Sony nature photography categories?
The awards distinguish between a professional category and a single-image category in the Open competition. Their winners are not overall competition winners.
| Category | Winner | Winning photograph |
|---|---|---|
| Professional Wildlife & Nature | Will Burrard-Lucas | Crossing Point |
| Open Natural World & Wildlife | Klaus Hellmich | Arctic Fox in Blizzard |
In the Professional Wildlife & Nature category, Anita Pouchard Serra placed second and Wolfgang Duerr placed third. The Open competition recognized the best single images made in 2025, as Sony describes it, “the best single images taken in the last year.” Sony’s 2026 announcement
What does the winning Open image show?
Klaus Hellmich’s Arctic Fox in Blizzard isolates a blue Arctic fox amid blowing snow on Norway’s Varanger Peninsula. The animal’s vivid coat stands out against the pale, stormy surroundings, making the subject immediately legible even as the weather dominates the frame. The location and description are from the official awards gallery.
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More wildlife images on the Open shortlist
The official gallery also features shortlisted photographs. These are recognized images, not additional category winners.
- Samuel Round’s untitled deer photograph was made at Charlecote, Warwickshire, in the United Kingdom.
- In Daichi Shimada’s Are you Good Friends?, a stream brown frog clings to a trout. The gallery describes the species as endemic to Japan and notes the river’s winter conditions.
- Wouter van Hofwegen’s At the Edge shows a polar bear beside the frozen sea.
- Stan Bouman’s Waving Squirrel took more than 40 hours and 4,000 exposures, according to the official caption.
- Scott Portelli’s Layers features Weddell seals on Antarctic ice.
- Kevin Shi’s Power Bite follows a female puma and two cubs in Chile’s Torres del Paine.
- Chung Cheong Wong’s The Eye: Window to the Soul frames a Blakiston’s fish owl’s eye through its flight feathers.
These descriptions follow the awards organizers’ captions; they do not, by themselves, establish broader claims about animal behavior or conservation.
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How large were the 2026 awards?
Sony reported that the 2026 competitions received over 430,000 images from over 200 countries and territories. This is Sony’s reported submission figure for the competitions, not an independently verified count. Sony’s 2026 announcement
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Can you still see the photographs at Somerset House?
The 2026 awards exhibition at Somerset House in London ran from 17 April to 4 May 2026. Those dates have passed as of October 2026. The awards announcement also says an annual book is among the winners’ benefits and that the Photographer of the Year’s work is included; it does not establish a current retail listing or specific edition details. World Photography Organisation exhibition and winners’ announcement
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