Wild horses gambol in the surf, stars glitter over the hottest geyser basin in Yellowstone, and a big bull elephant looms large over the environment.

These are some of the winning images from each nation in the Sony World Photography Awards 2022 from the World Photography Organisation. The National Awards program was created to support local photographers and photographic communities around the world. This year, 61 countries took part in the competition. 

“Wild Horses” by Matjaž Šimic, above, is the winner from Slovenia. It earned honors in the Natural World and Wildlife category.

Šimic describes the winning image:

More than 340,000 images from 211 territories were entered this year in the contest. The overall winners in the Student, Youth, Open, and Professional competitions of the Sony World Photography Awards 2022 will be announced in mid-April. 

Here are some of the other national winners with thoughts from the photographers about their images.

“Born of Fire”

Filip Hrebenda of Slovakia won in the Landscape category for this volcano image.

“Chimpanzee”

Pedro Jarque Krebs of Peru won third place in the Natural World and Wildlife category for his chimpanzee portrait.

This year, the competition featured a new Latin America National Awards initiative to focus on the area’s photographic community. The awards considered talent from across Central America, South America, and Mexico.

“Stars over Yellowstone”

Mazin Alhassan won from Saudi Arabia in the Landscape category.

“Polar Bear Cub”

Jenny Zhao was the winner from the United States in the Natural World and Wildlife category.

“Untitled”

Peter Angvarson won from Sweden in the Landscape category. His winning image is of a landscape made by Lake Vanern in Sweden.

“Giant Tusker”

Mohammad Mirza won representing Kuwait. His elephant photo earned honors in the Natural World and Wildlife category.

“El Vigia”

Gonzalo Javier Santile earned second place honors for Argentina in the Creative category.

“Movement and Stop”

Salem Alsawafi was the winner from the United Arab Emirates in the Motion category.