On April 18, Sony World Photography Awards 2019 announced winners. The photo contest is held for the 12th time, gathering more and more participants from amateur teenagers and students to well-known professionals. In addition to awards, the victory in Sony World Photography brings the author of works wide coverage of his work in media, at exhibitions, in fact, creates his/her name. This year, the jury reviewed more than 327 thousands of pictures. Most of the photos have deep philosophical meaning, expose current world problems and make you think about many things, viewing them is not entertainment.

Thus, the photographer of the year was named Federico Borella from Italy with a series of pictures "Five Degrees", dedicated to the tragedy of Indian peasants. Global warming causes droughts that have a critical impact on their lives. The images were taken in the southern state of India, Tamil Nadu, which experienced the worst drought in 140 years.

The next nomination — "Open Competition", which has not series, but individual pictures. The winner was Christy Lee Rogers from the USA. Once I told about this project. So, it did not go unnoticed.

Here are some participants who were shortlisted for this nomination.
Pan Jianhua, China, Culture, "Shadow Puppetry":

Tracey Lund, United Kingdom, Natural World & Wildlife, "Underwater Gannets":

Hal Gage, United States, Landscape, "Stumps, Alder Lake, Nisqually River, Washington"

Martin Stranka, Czech Republic, Creative, "Dreamers and Warriors"

And here are pictures of the youngest contestants.
Winner is Zelle Westfall from the United States with a portrait of "Diversity":

Impressive photo by Johannes Weigl, Austria, "Fallen Out of the World":

Untitled photo by Jeremy Kupfuwa from Zimbabwe:

Another nomination is "Architecture". The winner was Stephan Zirwes, Germany, who in the summer of 2018 photographed public pools. These low-entry pools, accessible to virtually all segments of the population, have become an important part of social and cultural life. Of course, they leave especially many pleasant memories from childhood.

Nomination "World of Wildlife". The winner is Jasper Doest, the Netherlands, with the series "Meet Bob", which tells the story of the flamingo that once flew into the window of the hotel and was seriously injured. Even after treatment, he was unable to live in the wild. But Flamingo Bob became a kind of ambassador of a charity organization dedicated to the protection of the local wildlife.

This year's winning series is dedicated to women boxers from North Kivu, a province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This is a rather dangerous and dysfunctional place, and boxing clubs allow women to defend themselves and believe in themselves in the fight against cruelty and injustice. The author is Alessandro Grassani, Italy.

The most controversial for me is a series of winner is "Yuck" in the category "Still Life" by Nicolas Gaspardel and Pauline Baert, France. The authors play with pop culture and made their pictures of food a real provocation:

How is your mood after watching it? What pictures are especially memorable?