Alys Tomlinson: from the series Ex-Voto

1st place – Discovery category, and the overall Sony photographer of the year. Shot at Lourdes (France), Ballyvourney (Ireland) and Grabarka (Poland), the project encompasses formal portraiture, large-format landscape and small, detailed still-lifes of the objects and markers left behind at these sites of pilgrimage. Read more on the UK winner here

Antonio Gibotta: ‘Enafrinat’

2nd place - Discovery category. The ‘flour war’ takes place on 28 December every year in Ibi, in Alicante, southeast Spain. Two teams fight with flour, water, eggs and coloured smoke bombs. It’s been celebrated for two centuries; its origins are linked to the bible story of the Slaughter of the Innocents.

Wiebke Haas: Perfect Toupee

3rd place - Natural World & Wildlife category. ‘Mostly, Anton held his his head close to the ground so it took a lot of time to manage this shot. We tickled him in the ear to make him shake his head. His thick mane looks like a hairpiece! The shot is part of my Horsestyle series. I photograph horses because I adore their beauty and magnificent grace, and because they can be darn funny!’ More details here

Fredrik Lerneryd: from the series Slum Ballet

1st place - Contemporary Issues. The Kibera ballet school is part of the Anno’s Africa and www.onefineday.org projects working in slum areas in Kenya. Weekly ballet classes are held by former dancer Mike Wamaya. In collaboration with a ballet studio in Karen, an upper-class area in Nairobi, young dancers are given the opportunity to be part of productions at the city’s national theatre. More details here

Behnam Sahvi: from the series Magic of Water

2nd place - Sport category. Eleven-year-old Pejman takes a shower before the Disabled Swimming Championships in Tehran province, Iran.

Mohd Samsul Mohd Said: Life inside the camp

1st Place - Current Affairs and News category.Bangladesh military control the situation, as Rohingya refugees wait to receive food aid at the distribution point in Balukhali refugee camp, on 28 September, 2017.

Rohan Reilly: ‘Casoni’

2nd place - Landscape category. ‘These fishing huts (Casoni) are built on stilts in the Venetian lagoon. The local fisherman use them to store their equipment in a safe place. I was completely transfixed by their colours and shapes, but even more by the space around them. I loved the ramshackle way the fisherman left their nets, tools and equipment lying around them, giving character and a narrative. The local government tried a few years back to have them dismantled as they deemed them an eyesore.’

Tom Oldham: from the series Last of the Crooners

1st place - Portraiture category. ‘Long before Gilbert and George made art in the East End of London, in a corner of every pub at weekends you’d find pub singers crooning their way through a set of jazz standards, entertaining audiences all over Hackney and Bethnal Green. Today, only the Palm Tree in Bow, E3, continues to honour this tradition, hosting guest singers every weekend.’

Tristan Spinski: Rhino Snout Trophy

2nd place - Still Life category . Rhinoceros snout section with two horns, mounted to a plaque, photographed at the US Fish and Wildlife Service Repository in Denver, Colorado on 20 April, 2017. Where once millions of rhinos walked the earth, as of 2015, wildlife officials estimate only 30,000 still exist in the wild. Ivory poaching and habitat loss are primarily to blame.

Andrew Quilty: from the series High Water

3rd place - Portraiture category. ‘Omid, who doesn’t know his age, stands for a portrait with his homemade skis in Aub Bala’s village mosque. Aub Bala (means High Water in Dari language), is the farthest village up the Fuladi Valley in central Afghanistan’s Bamiyan province.’

Mitch Dobrowner: ‘Mammatus’

2nd place - Natural World and Wildlife category.Bolton, Kansas: Storm Systems, United States of America.

Roselena Ramistella: Deep Land Series

1st place - Natural World and Wildlife category. ‘Luigi is a young Sicilian. The economic crisis and high unemployment rate is redirecting young Sicilians from rural communities back to the lands and working in agriculture. Luigi helps his father cultivate small fields and take care of farm animals. Every day he tries to save money to assist his young Romanian fiancee, to pay for her trip back to Sicily so they can start a new life together.’

Corentin Fohlen: ‘Casimir’

3rd place - Architecture category. ‘Lumane Casimir in Haiti is an example of the cacophony and the problems that have prevailed during the reconstruction of the country. These include lack of housing, corruption, vagueness in administrative management, disengagement from the state, ill-conceived and badly managed humanitarian projects, natural resources destroyed. Of 3,000 houses, only half have been built. Each year I photographed the village to show whether it had changed or not.’

Luis Henry Agudelo Cano: from the series Young People Who Beautify Death

2nd place - Current Affairs and News category. ‘These boys are studying thanatopraxy - preparing the deceased for burials. They acquire a knowledge so professional that they are capable of erasing the marks of death and healing wounds, in such a way that the image that the deceased transmit to their families and friends is of peace, regardless of the circumstances of their death.’

Florian Ruiz: The White Contamination series

1st place - Creative category. “In the snowy landscapes of the heights of Fukushima, I have captured the invisible pain of radiation. By a process of staggered super impression, I intended to show the atom’s alteration in pictures. The transparency effects, the broken perspectives give rise to a shape that is in motion, an impermanent world.”