Hotshots

Our selection of winning images from the Open Competition of the Sony World Photography Awards 2025

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WINNER: Lifestyle 'Akihabara' Hajime Hirano (Japan) The blueprint for Tokyo's Akihabara district, located north of the city centre, was set when street vendors used to gather here to sell parts for radios. During the period of rapid economic growth in the late 1950s, Akihabara grew into 'Japan's largest electronics town'. Nowadays, it is just as famous worldwide as the home of anime and cosplay culture. With these two different faces, Akihabara is a place that embodies the essence of 'Japaneseness'

WINNER: Architecture 'Centre of the Cosmos' Xuecheng Liu (China) This super-wide aerial view of Times Square in New York City has a resolution of 400 million pixels and a viewing angle equivalent to a 5mm focal length on a full-frame camera.