The Sony World Photography Awards recognizes and rewards the best contemporary photography from around the world. The following are a selection of winning images in the professional categories. These striking photos show the photographer's perspectives on issues as varied as the ebola crisis, mental illness, and receding glaciers.
John Moore was named as the Professional Photographer of the Year for his body of work on the ebola crisis. This images shows a woman in Liberia crawling towards the body of her sister as Ebola burial team members take her away. (John Moore/Getty Images)
In Ancient Greece, drifting souls were often represented by butterfly symbols. Scott Typaldos chose "Butterflies Chapter 3" as the title of his documentary project on mental illness showing men and women in institutions or healing centers. (Scott Typaldos/Prospekt)
Sebastian Gil Miranda's series "Shoot Ball, not Gun" shows children playing soccer in in Villa La Carcova; Jose Leon Suarez, Buenos Aires. It is one of the most dangerous neighbourhoods in the country and gunshots are often heard just outside the walls.
Living in the Great Liangshan Mountains in southwest Sichuan province of China, the ethnic Yi people are living a self-sufficient farming way of life and their indigenous way of life is one of the best preserved among ethnic minorities in western China. (Fan Li/Lon Gallery)
Bernhard Lang's aerial photographs of the Adriatic coastline between Ravenna and Rimini, Italy show thousands of sun worshipers lazed on the golden sands, sheltering underneath massive beach umbrellas.
Across New Jersey and the rest of America, every spring high school seniors go through the right of passage of their high school prom. An event where everyone looks their best wearing elaborate gowns and tuxedos where one can’t differentiate their social or economic background. (Aristide Economopoulos/SL)
Under EU regulations a prisoner who is married or in a relationship has the right to receive private visits which takes place in a separate room inside the prison. Cosmin Bumbutz photographed the "intimate rooms" used for the visits inside Romanian prisons including this one in Tulcea Penitentiary.
Molotov Cocktails have been the weapon of choice for the EuroMaidan protestors in Kiev. The protestors were able to defend their barricades. Kiev’s protestors used thousands of Molotov Cocktails, inspiring and mobilizing people throughout the city to collect as many bottles as possible. (Donald Weber/VII Photo Agency)
Ruben Salgado Escudero's portraits depict the lives of inhabitants of remote areas of Myanmar who, for the first time have access to electricity through the power of solar energy. Construction workers dig a household latrine in Pa Dan Kho Village, Kayah State.
Simon Norfolk used fire to highlight the melting away of the Lewis Glacier on Mt. Kenya. The flame line shows the Lewis Glacier's location in 1934.