Sony World Photography Awards: One Night on the Ice

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The best of the Sony World Photography Awards 2022: More than 170,000 photographers submitted their works for the "open competition" - the winners were awarded by country, this year 61. Here are the most beautiful of their pictures, including a picture of the French one Monastery island Mont-Saint-Michel by Cigdem Ayyildiz: For the photographer from Turkey it is something like the eighth wonder of the world.

Photo: Cigdem Ayyildiz / Sony World Photography Awards 2022

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»Born of Fire«: »Volcanoes are a rare opportunity to witness the complete transformation of a landscape.

Places that until recently were valleys and meadows have become hills, craters and lava fields,” says Filip Hrebenda from Slovakia.

He was at Fagradalsfjall in southwest Iceland, where an eruption began in March 2021.

Photo: Filip Hrebenda / Sony World Photography Awards 2022

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Eye of the Earth: Iceland never ceases to fascinate landscape photographers.

Using a drone, Mathis Vandermeeren captured this image at the Hverravellir geothermal area in the center of the country.

"It shows a natural hot spring that is a beautiful blue color, especially when viewed from above."

Photo: Mathis Vandermeeren / Sony World Photography Awards 2022

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Cave View: Chihao Wang from Taiwan captured this painting-like photo.

“A lot of bats used to live in this cave.

They have disappeared due to environmental changes.«

Photo: Chihao Wang / Sony World Photography Awards 2022

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Idyll at the glacial lake: The hike to Bondhusvatnet near Sundal is one of the most popular in the Norwegian region of Hardanger and the lake is a well-known motif.

"I love this peaceful place," says Hans Kristian Strand.

He visits him every year "hoping to get the perfect picture, and this year I finally did it."

Photo: Hans Kristian Strand / Sony World Photography Awards 2022

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Dance of Death: Sergio Carrasco has portrayed a Catrina, a figure symbolic of the Day of the Dead.

"Every year my wife puts on a different Catrina costume to celebrate our tradition," says the Mexican photographer.

The photo shows her in a dress typical of the state of Chiapas, in the middle of a field of marigolds.

The flower is traditionally used in the celebrations of Día de Muertos.

Photo: Sergio Carrasco / Sony World Photography Awards 2022

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Sunset over the Katpana Desert: The so-called Cold Desert is located near the Pakistani city of Skardu at an altitude of around 2220 meters;

making it one of the highest deserts in the world.

In winter there is snow in the valleys.

Yawar Abbas from Pakistan says that she looks like a "golden snake" in the light of the setting sun.

Photo: Yawar Abbas / Sony World Photography Awards 2022

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An elephant named "Craig": Mohammed Mirza, who received the award for Kuwait, took the giant in front of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

"It takes a lot of courage to get within a few feet of this big bull and photograph it from a very low angle with a wide-angle lens," he says of his image.

It took him five days to do it.

Photo: Mohammad Mirza / Sony World Photography Awards 2022

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Lost in clouds: Wonyoung Choi from South Korea kept climbing Bukhansan Mountain in Seoul at sunrise.

But "it's a rare sight to see the city shrouded in clouds," he says.

"I'm grateful to Mother Nature for transforming Seoul's architecture from monotonous to colorful."

Photo: Wonyoung Choi / Sony World Photography Awards 2022

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Wrapped up by Christo: Damon Beckford traveled to the island of Emäsalo on the south coast of Finland in minus 25 degrees Celsius to capture the freezing of the Baltic Sea.

"When the sea starts to freeze, beautiful ice sculptures appear on the rocks, and a few days later the sea is frozen." He took the picture at night with a slow shutter speed on extremely smooth ice.

Photo: Damon Beckford / Sony World Photography Awards 2022

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Skies over Cafayate, Argentina: "I love the combination of the Milky Way and these unique rocks," says Gonzalo Javier Santile, silver medalist at the Latin America National Prize.

The photo is composed of 20 shots taken with a 15mm lens - including six of the sky and six of the foreground.

He had to fix his tripod with stones because the hot Los Colorados wind was blowing.

Photo: Gonzalo Javier Santile / Sony World Photography Awards 2022

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Evening mood in front of The Hague: The Estonian Raido Nurk was at a surf festival off the Dutch coast - in the pouring rain.

"The waves were the highest I've ever seen in the evening."

Photo: Raido Nurk / Sony World Photography Awards 2022

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Decorated with flowers: Juan Carlos Rodrigues from Costa Rica met the woman in the northern Indian region of Ladakh.

At a market in the capital Leh, the mixture of traditional clothing and a touch of modernity appealed to him.

The woman »belongs to the Dard ethnic group who live in the valleys of Ladakh.

These people see themselves as descendants of Alexander the Great.

Photo: Juan Carlos Rodriguez / Sony World Photography Awards 2022

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Old and new on Berlin's Museum Island: the James Simon Gallery, which the two bathers are so obviously unimpressed by, is the museum's visitor center;

it was built from 2009 to 2018 according to plans by British architect David Chipperfield.

Frank Loddenkemper won the national prize for Germany with the strictly graphic photo.

Photo: Frank Loddenkemper / Sony World Photography Awards 2022

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Buddha over Bangkok: Kunuch Chutmongkolporn won the prize for Thailand with his telephoto shot of Bangkok.

The Buddha statue of Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen Temple can be seen in the background.

Photo: Kunuch Chutmongkolporn / Sony World Photography Awards 2022

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Born of the sea: Matjaz Simic from Slovenia visited the Camargue in France in the summer and managed to capture the dynamic photo of the white horses on the beach.

"Her elegance and energy fascinated me so much that I was speechless," he writes.

Photo: Matjaž Šimic / Sony World Photography Awards 2022

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