The image above, Forest of Resonating Lamps by Yukihito Ono, is just one of the thousands of phenomenal entries to make the shortlist in this year’s Sony World Photography Awards.

Hailed as one of the world’s largest and most prestigious global photography events, the awards showcase the best that the art form has to offer across a range of genres.

According to Creative Boom, over 326 000 entries were submitted across the four competitions for 2019, the highest ever number to date, with the UK, Italy, North America, Mexico, India and Korea seeing the biggest increase in submissions.

But you know what they say – a picture is worth a thousand words – so I’m going to stop waffling on and leave you to enjoy the 17 000 words below:

Birth by Richard Ansett:

Illusion by Gérard Bret:

Tangshan, 2018 by Jennifer Bin:

Untitled by Miranda Alam:

Sentinel by Shaun Mills:

In the Locker Room by Hardijanto Budyman:

Night Swim by Remy Whiting:

The Hands by Filippos Alafakis:

Bright Minuet by Alessandro Zanoni:

Fallen Out of the World by Johannes Weigl:

Huddle by Nadia Aly:

Intense by Yung-Sen Wu

Circle of Power by Sandi Little:

Ahhhh by Greg Lecoeur:

Arabian Red Fox by Msaaed Al Gharibah:

Agony and Ecstacy by Pedro Jarque Krebs

The Assault by David Salvatori:

You can see more of the finalists on Sky and Creative Boom.

[source:creativeboom]