Sony World Photography Awards 2016 Winners

Professional environment category winner. Eagle Hunters of Western China, by Kevin Frayer, Canada. The training and handling of large birds of prey follows a strict set of ancient rules that Kazakh eagle hunters are preserving for future generations in the mountainous region of western China that borders Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Professional contemporary issues category winner, and L’Iris d’Or photographer of the year. Fire of Hatred, by Asgar Khamseh, Iran. Mohsen Mortazavi is a 34-year-old resident of Tehran. On the first day of work in 2012, his co-worker welcomed him with three litres of sulphuric acid, and after that knifed him 16 times in revenge for making prank calls – although he wasn’t responsible. Mohsen lost his right eye, skin on his head, and right eardrum. He still requires further surgery. (Photo by Asghar Khamseh)

Professional conceptual category winner. Greetings from Mars, by Julien Mauve, France. Mauve says: “I have always wondered what it would be like to discover a totally different world … and to photograph it for the first time as if I was Ansel Adams. So I came up with this project, which is about space exploration and discovery. But it’s also about our behavior in front of landscapes and how we create pictures that will share our personal story with the world”. (Photo by Julien Mauve)

Professional landscape category winner. Rhino, from the series Land of Nothingness by Maroesjka Lavigne, Belgium. Namibia is one of the least densely populated places on earth, a barren, yet constantly changing desert landscape; here a rhino bleeds into ground and sky. (Photo by Maroesjka Lavigne)

Professional candid category winner. Milagro, from the series Waiting for the Candymen by Kirstin Schmitt, Germany. Schmitt calls her series “a portrait of Cuban idiosyncrasy and a study of waiting. Waiting for the right moment, waiting for tomorrow, waiting for change, waiting for something or someone who brings redemption – maybe”. (Photo by Kirstin Schmitt)

Professional daily life category winner. The Curse of Coal, by Espen Rasmussen, Norway. Chelse, 21, together with her boyfriend Eric and friend Alvin, in her mother’s trailer close to Beckley, West Virginia. They smoke OxyContin painkillers before going out for a party on Hallowe’en. West Virginia is pill state number one in the US, partly in the wake of the collapse of the coal industry. (Photo by Espen Rasmussen)

Professional sport category winner. Second Best, by Nikolai Linares, Denmark. Daniel Heinze, 27, weighing 75kg, from the boxing club Ringsted BK. Linares made portraits of the silver medal winners just after losing their final at the Zealand boxing championships held in Copenhagen. (Photo by Nikolai Linares)

Professional portraiture category winner. Ebola Survivors, by Marcello Bonfanti, Italy. Monjama Moussa, 25, is a married mother of four children, from Goderich, Sierra Leone. After being treated for ebola by the Italian NGO Emergency, she returned home, but was refused by her family, who considered her healing as a sign of demon possession. She has lost her family and her job. She now works as cleaner at the emergency surgical hospital in Goderich. (Photo by Marcello Bonfanti)

Professional people category winner. Nomadic Life Threatened on the Tibetan Plateau, by Kevin Frayer, Canada. A young Tibetan Buddhist novice monk stands with his yak herd at the family’s nomadic summer grazing area on the Tibetan Plateau in Yushu County, Qinghai, China. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)

Professional architecture category winner. Empire of dust # 18, Palerme, Sicile, by Amélie Labourdette, France. Labourdette’s Empire of Dust series was taken in the south of Italy, where financial crises and embezzlement have left the countryside pockmarked with unfinished buildings. (Photo by Amelie Labourdette)

Professional campaign category winner. TransBrasil by Jetmir Idrizi, Kosovo. Kosovan photographer Idrizi headed around Brazil to document the country’s trans communities – lifting the name of airline company TransBrasil for its title – to show the sheer breadth of gender identity. (Photo by Jetmir Idirizi)

Professional current affairs category winner. In Search of the European Dream, by Angelos Tzortzinis, Greece. An Afghan refugee carries his child as he arrives on a beach on the Greek island of Kos, in May 2015, after crossing a part of the Aegean Sea between Turkey and Greece. (Photo by Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP Photo)

Professional still life category winner. Migrant Tomatoes, by Francesco Amorosino, Italy. Amorosino explains: “Tons of tomatoes are grown in the fields of the south of Italy and harvested by about 19,000 labourers, paid one or two euros for each filled box. In 2015 there were 13 deaths at work in the fields because of high temperatures. Many of those involved in the harvest are immigrants. On the tomatoes, still dirty with soil, I saw the fingerprints of those who had harvested, imagined their stories, the hours spent in the sun, the hope, the desire to work”. (Photo by Francesco Amorosino)

Professional staged winner. IconicB004, by Alberto Alicata, Italy. Alicata traces the history of photography, using symbols of contemporary western culture. In this case, Barbie helps replicate a famous Guy Bourdin image. (Photo by Alberto Alicata)