Sunset in Colombo, Sri Lanka, creates a fiery backdrop as people gather around a street food stall selling the famous isso wade, a savoury prawn snack food that is a local favourite. I couldn’t resist taking a photograph, which I shot handheld. © Nazly Ahmed, Sri Lanka, Shortlist, Open Competition, Street Photography, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘Surfer in the City’. A surfer in the town of Thun, Switzerland. © Lucian Alexandru Micu, Romania, Shortlist, Open Competition, Street Photography, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

I took this photograph in Trieste, Italy, on 10 July 2022, during the Olimpiadi delle Clanfe. This is a wacky diving championship that takes place every year at one of the oldest beach resorts in town. © Tommaso Vaccarezza, Italy, Shortlist, Open Competition, Street Photography, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘The Way’. A beach seller sitting down next to his stall in Puglia, Italy. © Lorenzo Grifantini, Italy, Shortlist, Open Competition, Street Photography, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘Pizza Delivery Available’. Set in the heart of Mustang, Nepal, this is a pizza parlour with a difference. © Benson Spiers, United Kingdom, Shortlist, Open Competition, Street Photography, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘Sunset Street’. In Taiwan, people used to gather together at dusk with bags of garbage, chatting while waiting for the garbage truck to arrive. Today, they throw away their own garbage, often leaving quickly, and sometimes without even greeting their neighbours. © Ting Hao Tseng, Taiwan, Shortlist, Open Competition, Street Photography, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘White and Blue’. Argentina fans in Dhaka, Bangladesh, celebrate with a huge Argentine flag ahead of their match in the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Bangladesh has a large number of fans of the Argentina football team. © Rizwan Hasan, Bangladesh, Shortlist, Open Competition, Street Photography, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘Elvis is in the Building’. An Elvis tribute artist looks rather melancholy following their performance at the Viva Vegas venue in Blackpool, England. © Cath Muldowney, United Kingdom, Shortlist, Open Competition, Street Photography, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘Yamakasa 4’. The Hakata Gion Yamakasa is a festival that is celebrated in the first half of July in Fukuoka City, the largest city on Japan’s southwestern island of Kyushu. Several teams of men race around the city before the break of dawn, carrying one-ton wooden floats known as kakiyama. The festival is believed to have an 800-year history and attracts up to one million spectators each year. © Chin Leong Teo, Singapore, Shortlist, Open Competition, Street Photography, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘Times Square Basketball’. After midnight I came across this impromptu street basketball game. New York, NY, May 2022. © Kathryn Mussallem, Canada, Shortlist, Open Competition, Street Photography, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

Horseback rider in El Rocio, Andalucia, Spain. © Stan De Zoysa, Spain, Shortlist, Open Competition, Street Photography, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘The Man’. I was in Warsaw for a few days and one morning I decided to travel on the Metro and get out at every stop. As I was about to leave this station the sun appeared and I waited for someone to enter the frame at the top of the steps. © Barbara Iwińska, Poland, Shortlist, Open Competition, Street Photography, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘Surreal Iceland’. Iceland never fails to amaze me. I last went there to see a volcano erupting and was lucky enough to get there on the last day that it was still spilling lava. As a bonus, we also got the moon and the first aurora of the season. © Fabian Pfeifhofer, Italy, Shortlist, Open Competition, Travel, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘Milky Way from Chureito Pagoda. On the night of a new moon in April, with the cherry blossoms in full bloom, the Milky Way rose above Mount Fuji. It is rare that full bloom cherry blossoms, a new moon and clear skies coincide – this was the first time in three years that I was able to photograph this scene. © Yukihito Ono, Japan, Shortlist, Open Competition, Travel, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘Train of Lights’. The ‘Santa special’ Christmas train runs on Dartmouth steam railway in Devon, England. © Adrian Pearce, United Kingdom, Shortlist, Open Competition, Travel, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘Ghosts’. The Mundari tribe of South Sudan appear like apparitions among the nightly fires they light to keep the tsetse flies and mosquitoes off their beloved Ankole-Watusi cows. Each night, as the cattle return from grazing, the herders tend to them by massaging ash into their skin to prevent bites. © Max Vere-Hodge, United Kingdom, Winner, Open Competition, Travel, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘The Festival Sacrifice’. I took this photograph in the Chinese province of Guizhou in December 2022. It shows the natural cultural heritage of the Miao people. © Yunhua Yu, China Mainland, Shortlist, Open Competition, Travel, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘Iceberg Detail’. The peak of an iceberg in Greenland. © Tim Daniels, United Kingdom, Shortlist, Open Competition, Travel, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘Sunken Church Tower’. In 1950, the Italian village of Curon was flooded to create the artificial basin of Lake Resia, to power a hydroelectric dam. Today, the only visible remnant of the village is the 14th-century church tower jutting from the water. © Paweł Jagiełło, Poland, Shortlist, Open Competition, Travel, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘Part of Article’. In his poem, Part of Article, the Chinese poet, Bian Zhilin, wrote:
‘As you are enjoying the scenery on a bridge,
Upstairs on a tower people are watching you’.
Photographed in Dalian, Liaoning, China, 11 August 2022. © Guojia Li, China Mainland, Shortlist, Open Competition, Travel, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘Nomadic Life’. A woman milking a cow near Alay Valley, Kyrgyzstan. Located in Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan is one of the few places on Earth where people lead a truly nomadic lifestyle. Fermented mare’s milk is a popular drink and a major source of income for nomads. Most dairy products are made by women, including kumis, kaymak, yoghurt and butter. © Callie Eh, Malaysia, Shortlist, Open Competition, Travel, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘Travel in Dalyan’. In the Dalyan Delta, the water coming out of the lake meanders to the sea. Exploring the delta by boat, slowly sailing through the reeds, lets you discover a beautiful piece of untouched nature. © İsmail Serhat Şahin’, Turkey, Shortlist, Open Competition, Travel, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

‘Way Back Home’. Rice terraces, called tanada in Japanese, are considered by many as Japan’s ‘original scenery’. From May to July, the water-filled rice terraces turn mountainsides into a network of mirrored pools, each one reflecting its own fragment of the sky. I took this photograph right after the golden hour, using a long, 147-second exposure. It was taken from the mountain around the biggest Japanese tanada – Maruyama Senmaida Rice Terraces – near the city of Kumano in Mie prefecture. © Pamela Chiang, Taiwan, Shortlist, Open Competition, Travel, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards

A young Ladakh woman wearing traditional wedding attire, which includes an incredibly elaborate headdress. Decorated with lapis lazuli stones and gold ornaments, these headdresses often weigh more than 15kg. Interestingly, while the bride has a single outfit for the two-day-long ceremony, the groom will change outfits more than three times. © Marios Forsos, Greece, Shortlist, Open Competition, Travel, 2023 Sony World Photography Awards DM/ML