13 truly phenomenal images: the 2020 Sony World Photography Award winners

The winners of this year's awards tell stories of environmental issues in Latin America, protests in Hong Kong and the lives of refugees arriving in Europe

Sony World Photography Awards' Photographer of the Year is Pablo Albarenga with his series "Seeds of Resistance". Pablo is awarded $25,000 and a Sony digital imaging kit. In this photo, Nantu, an indigenous young man from the Achuar Nation of Ecuador, lies dressed with traditional Achuar clothing. His image is juxtaposed to rainforest from the Achuar territory. Pablo Albarenga

First place in the Environment category is awarded to Robin Hinsch for his series Wahala which explores how the petroleum industry affects nature and communities in the Niger Delta. Robin Hinsch

First place for the Landscape category goes to Ronny Behnert for his series Evidence of Shintoism and Buddhism, which captures shrines in remote locations. Ronny Behnert

First place for the Portraiture category goes to Cesar Dezfuli, who photographed the men rescued from a rubber boat drifting in the Mediterranean Sea in 2016. Over the course of three years, the photographer followed these men and photographed them again to document their new lives. Cesar Dezfuli,

First place for the Documentary category is awarded to Chung Ming Ko for his series on the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, Chung Ming Ko

First place for the Nature & Wildlife category is by Brent Stirton, which documents the illegal trafficking of Pangolins between Asia and Africa. Brent Stirton

First place in the Discovery category is awarded to Maria Kokunovat for her series The Cave, which documents the four years she spent in self-isolation in a country house in Leningrad Oblast. Maria Kokunovat

The Still Life category winner is Alessandro Gandolfi for his series Immortality Inc, which explores the human quest for immortality through technology, medical science and diet. Alessandro Gandolfi

The first place winner for the Architecture category goes to Sandra Herber. Her series Ice Fishing Huts, Lake Winnipeg showcases the shacks scattered across Manitoba, Canada. Sandra Herber

First place for the Sport category is a series on Senegalese Wrestlers by Angel Lopez Soto. Wrestling has become the number one national sport in Senegal and parts of The Gambia, inspired by a larger West African form of traditional wrestling known as Lutte Traditionnelle. Angel Lopez Soto

This year's Open Photographer of the Year is Tom Oldham with his image "Black Francis". For his work, Oldham is awarded $5,000 and a Sony digital imaging kit. The Open competition rewards striking standalone images from around the world. Tom Oldham

Third place for the Discovery category goes to Hugh Kinsella Cunningham, who aims to capture effects of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The photo shows Masika, a health worker at a clinic receiving support from Save the Children, amidst the ongoing outbreak in Beni Territory, North Kivu. Hugh Kinsella Cunningham

Second place for the Documentary category goes to Didier Bizet for the series Baby Boom. Her project explores the popularity of a hyperrealistic doll that was first created in the US in the 1990s. Reborn artists, the makers of the dolls, go to great lengths to make their creations as realistic and indistinguishable from the real thing as possible. Many reborns have birthmarks, veins, hair, visible skin pores, and even saliva. Didier Bizet

The winners for this year's Sony World Photography Awards have been announced, with Pablo Albarenga named Photographer of the Year for his series Seeds of Resistance, which tells the stories of Latin America's indigenous communities and their struggle for environmental justice.

Of the series Albarenga wrote, "In 2017, at least 207 leaders and environmentalists were killed while protecting their communities from mining, agribusiness and other projects threatening their territories... Despite being immersed in such a violent situation, indigenous and traditional populations refuse to abandon their land, even when it has been completely destroyed."

He explains that the indigenous communities have a "unique bond to their territories", since the land not only offers support for livelihood and food, but also serves as "a sacred area in which hundreds of generations of their ancestors rest".

In his images, the photographer juxtaposes his subjects with aerial images of their landscape, poignantly highlighting the ties between them.

Albarenga is awarded $25,000 (Dh91,000) for his winning work.

Other categories in the professional competition include Architecture, Creative, Discovery, Documentary, Landscape, Natural World & Wildlife, Portraiture, Still Life, Sport, and the latest addition for 2020, Environment.

The winner of the inaugural Environment award is Robin Hinsch for his series on the impact of the petroleum industry on the ecology and communities in the Niger Delta.

Titled Wahala, the work details the human and environmental cost of economic development in the area, which includes crop destruction, water pollution and health problems for residents.

Over the decades, millions of oil barrels have been spilled into the Niger Delta, some the result of pipeline and tanker accidents, others of sabotage.

For the Portraiture category, Cesar Dezfuli's long-running project Passengers begins with photographs of men rescued from a rubber boat drifting in the Mediterranean Sea in 2016. Over the next three years, the photographer worked to locate the passengers and take a new portrait to showcase them in their new lives.

In his series, he places the two images side by side. "I wanted to show that each individual had a latent identity that just needed a peaceful context in order to flourish again," Dezfuli wrote in the description of his work. 

Other highlights include Chung Ming Ko's striking portraits of protesters in Hong Kong, which began in March last year and continue to this day and Ronny Behnert's series Torii, which won first place for the Landscape category, and shows minimalist shots of torii, traditional Japanese gates typically found at the entrance to Shinto shrines.

Click through the gallery above to see the rest of the winners of the 2020 Sony World Photography Awards.