Yan Wang Preston: To the South of the Colourful Clouds

First place, landscape. Preston’s series illustrates an ecology-recovery site in Yunnan Province, China, providing insight into the conversion of a rural stretch of land to an international leisure town. The vibrant colours are the result of the semi-artificial soil that forms the base for non-indigenous plants, including many mature trees

Federico Borella: Five Degrees

First place, documentary; photographer of the year overall winner. This skull, said to be of a farmer in the drought-hit region of Tamil Nadu, India, who killed himself, was used during a protest in Delhi in 2017, where farmers demanded a drought-relief package and loan waiver for peasants. Borella’s image is meant to depict how the impact of climate change ‘goes beyond Indian boundaries’.Read the interview with the winner here

Karina Bikbulatova: The Two Parallels – Ten

Third place, discovery. This black-and-white series is about Russian sisters abandoned by their father who live parallel lives. Gulshat lives with a poor family in a small village, while Alina lives in the city, studies in a prestigious school and does ballet. ‘They meet once a year in a small village, [where they] communicate, play, weave braids to each other, but don’t know that they are sisters’

Jasper Doest: Meet Bob

First place, natural world and wildlife. Doest works at the intersection between man and nature. Bob, pictured here, is a flamingo from the Curaçao. After flying into a hotel window and injuring himself, he was cared for by veterinarian Odette Doest, who runs a wildlife rehabilitation centre and conservation charity called Fundashon Dier en Onderwijs Cariben. Bob, who has disabilities, cannot be released back into the wild, so he has become an ambassador for FDOC

Alessandro Grassani: Boxing Against Violence – The Female Boxers of Goma

1st place, sport. Blandini lives on the streets of Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and took up boxing to protect herself after a vicious assault and rape. ‘I was covered with petrol by a group of men and set alight. The scars on my neck and my arm are the reminder of that night,’ she has said. Italian photographer Alessandro Grassani spoke about Blandini and the other female boxers he met while creating this series in a recent interview with the Observer. Read the full story

Stephan Zirwes: Cut-Outs – Pools 2018

1st place, architecture. ‘In Germany, nearly every small town has a pool. They’re a part of the social-cultural life, open for all,’ says Zirwes, who shot this series by drone. See more of his images

Yiming Zhang: Watching a Balloon Rise

Second place, still-life. ‘This project draws its inspiration from the mathematical study of chaotic systems, whereby the degree of freedom is so high that tiny changes in how a system is set up would have ramifications, albeit deterministic, that are profound and unpredictable,’ says Zhang

Marinka Masséus: Chosen [Not] to Be

First place, creative. This series is part of the Radical Beauty, an international photography project that aims to give people with Down’s syndrome their rightful place in the visual arts. ‘In addition, this series,’ Masséus explains, ‘aims to further public debate about the ramifications of rapid technological developments concerning prenatal screening [non-invasive prenatal screening] and the extinction of certain groups of people’

Christian Vizl: Ocean Ambassadors

Second place, natural world and wildlife. This image captures a striped marlin hunting a school of mackerel off the coast of San Carlos, Mexico. ‘I have devoted my life to exploring and contemplating the amazing beauty of the ocean … but sadly I have witnessed the increasing devastation that humans are creating,’ says Vizl. ‘For this series I chose a few emblematic animals that inhabit the world’s oceans, because I believe they carry the power to promote empathy and initiate change’

Laetitia Vancon: At the End of the Day

Third place, portraiture. Vancon’s series portrays younger people in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland. ‘What is the daily life of these young people, where the population is ageing and the economy is declining, where jobs and studies but also partner choices are limited?’ Vancon asks. ‘How can the young develop a sense of belonging strong enough to decide to stay and keep floating the islands?’

Álvaro Laiz: The Edge

First place, portraiture. Since 2014 Laiz has been exploring the links between our distant past and our near future through a multidisciplinary study of hunter-gatherer populations, revealing the profound connection between humans and the natural world

Brent Stirton: Akashinga – The Brave Ones

Second place, documentary. Members of the all-female conservation ranger force known as Akashinga undergo tough training in a water hole near their base. This particular exercise is designed for team-building. Akashinga (meaning ‘Brave Ones’) is a community-driven conservation model, empowering disadvantaged women to restore and manage a network of wilderness areas as an alternative to trophy hunting

Pol Kurucz: The Normals

Third place, creative. What is normal? That’s the question asked – and provocation made – by Kurucz. The people in this series are, in Kurucz’s words, ‘genuine eccentrics, weirdos and lunatics who in the eyes of the photographer are the new normals’

Boyuan Zhang: JiangNan

Second place, discovery. ‘Xinjiang is the largest autonomous region in northwestern China. For thousands of years it used to known as the Western Regions, and is now a place where dozens of ethnic groups inhabit. Walking along the river, you can see the rapid development of the social system, while seeing the legacy of human civilisation from thousands of years ago’

Ed Thompson: In the Garden of England

Third place, brief. Thompson has spent 18 years photographing predominantly in south-east England: ‘There are a number of themes at work in this photo series, covering nostalgia, class and the beautiful uncanny of everyday English life’. This is of Wayne Avery, who works on the Light Railway, in Kent. He drives the locomotives and also lights the coal fires.

Nicolas Gaspardel and Pauline Baert: Yuck

First place, still-life. Bubblegum on toast – yum or yuck? Paris-based Nicolas Gaspardel and Pauline Baert use photographs of food as metaphors of both the poetic and the disturbing

Thomas Nielsen: The Big Score

Third place, sport. Nielsens’ images often contain elements that don’t quite fall into place. There is an unevenness that often embraces flaws, faults and errors, such as this shot of spectators at Brentford Football Club in west London

Marco Kesseler: Polytunnel

Second place, landscape. Kesseler’s project examines the hidden landscape within the spaces our food is produced and the relationship between chaos and control in the natural environment. In polytunnels, seasons are stretched and softened, creating, as Kesseler puts it, ‘its own cosmos. In these unseen spaces nature vies for territory within a man-made colony’