Sony World Photography Awards 2015 - The cream of the crop of photography throughout the year

The 2015 Sony World Photography Awards is one of the most prestigious events in the world of photography. It has been organized annually since 2008 by the World Photography Organization in cooperation with the Japanese tech giant Sony. Thanks to him, professionals and simply talented photographers get a chance to show the world their best work.

In 2015, photography professionals and enthusiasts compete in 25 categories. The application deadline is January 8, 2015. As a reward, the winners will be offered cash prizes and state-of-the-art Sony digital photography equipment. But only one professional photographer will win the coveted L'Iris d'Or (Golden Aperture) and Sony World Photography Awards Photographer of the Year at the awards gala in London on April 23, 2015.

The collection of photographs submitted for the competition is simply impressive, it includes incredible images of wildlife, mesmerizing landscapes of the Earth, mesmerizing portraits, national traditions and other masterpieces of photography. We invite you to evaluate 25 outstanding entries for the competition, each of which is perfect in its own way.

(Total 25 photos)

1. In the picture, Fina is the youngest of two daughters of photographer Arief Siswandhono from Indonesia. She was very afraid of cats. The parents decided to help her overcome her fear and took two kittens home to look after them. Within seven months, they became best friends. (© Arief Siswandhono)

2. Once a year, Hindus around the world celebrate Holi, the festival of spring and bright colors. This is the most colorful holiday in India, falling on the last full moon of the lunar month. People take to the streets and throw brightly colored powders at each other. (© Ioulia Chvetsova)

3. Innovative cubic houses built in 1984 in Rotterdam and Helmond (Netherlands) by architect Piet Blom. (© Cor Boers)

4. A small orangutan takes shelter from a downpour under a banana leaf (Bali). (© Andrew Suryono)

5. A Hindu monk standing on a misty winter morning in the middle of a mango garden. Dinajpur (Bangladesh). (© Jubair Bin Iqbal)

6. Romanian aerobatic team YAK Team at the air show during the international air show in Bucharest (Romania). (© Cioplea Vlad)

7. Staircase in Berlin (Germany). (© Ralf Wendrich)

8. Kermode bears in British Columbia (Canada). This subspecies of the American black bear (baribal) lives exclusively in western Canada. Only 10% of the population has a white or cream coat color. (© Kyle Breckenridge)

9. Morning wash on the river Hooghly in Calcutta (India). (© Nick Ng)

10. A hot air balloon hovering over the sand dunes at dawn. New Zealand photographer Gareth Lowndes captured this photo from a basket of a similar balloon. (© Gareth Lowndes)

11. White doe in the morning foggy haze in the middle of the Eifel National Park (Germany). (© George May)

12. Autumn landscape of the two-headed Mount McKinley, located in the Denali National Park in Alaska. With a height of almost 6.2 km, it is the highest mountain in North America. (© Miquel Ángel Artús Illana)

13. Representative of the African tribe Hamer collects sticks to create a corral for livestock. Lower Omo Valley (Ethiopia). (© Diego Arroyo Méndez)

14. A portrait with a hidden face is one of the best ways to add mystery to a photo. (© Courtney Colantonio-Ray)

15. A colony of king penguins in South Georgia, a large island in the South Atlantic. The king penguin is very similar to the emperor penguin, but smaller in size and brighter in color. The height of these funny birds is up to 1 m. (© Lisa Vaz)

16. Stunning black and white photo of an elderly teacher from Hanoi (Vietnam). (© Bao Vu)

17. German amateur photographer Georg May called this minimalist photo “Hello… Who are you?”. On it is a tit, which looks at its reflection in the water. (© George May)

18. Times are hard for dreamers - the girl froze in a cloud of white feathers. (© Ahmad Zikri Mohamad Zuki)

19. Trollstigen, better known as the Troll Road, is one of the most famous sights in Norway. The mountain serpentine with a length of 106 kilometers has about 11 sharp turns, and its width in some places does not exceed 3.3 meters. (© Christoph Schaarschmidt)

20. Sagrada Familia (Sagrada Familia) is an unfinished church in Barcelona, designed by the greatest architect Antonio Gaudí. The interior of the basilica captivates with its unearthly beauty. (© Kathryn Hallett)

21. Mirror reflection of Piccadilly Circus in London (UK). (© Steve Cooke)

22. Symmetrical building in Frankfurt (Germany). (© Peter Eberhardt)

23. Life through a soap bubble on Gendarmenmarkt square in Berlin (Germany). (© Rudi Steenbruggen)

24. Children who played enough of football decided to wallow in the mud. (© Alamsyah Rau)

25. The Kazakhs have a saying: "A real man should have three things: a fast horse, a faithful dog and a golden eagle." (© Lisa Vaz)