Decisive Moment: Sony World Photography Awards

Decisive Moment: Sony World Photography Awards brings a landmark international photography exhibition to South Africa for the first time.

Presented by the Roger Ballen Centre for Photography in collaboration with the World Photography Organisation, the exhibition features selected winning images from the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Sony World Photography Awards. Now in their 19th edition, the Awards are one of the world’s leading platforms for photography, recognising exceptional talent across professional, open, student and youth categories.

Spanning documentary, portraiture, wildlife, sport, landscape and creative photography, 'Decisive Moment' brings together images from across the globe, offering audiences a rare opportunity to experience the scale, diversity and power of contemporary photography in Johannesburg.

The exhibition captures the vitality of contemporary photography, bringing together distinct stories and ways of seeing to form a global conversation.

Running alongside the exhibition is New Eyes: The Roger Ballen Centre Photography Award, the Centre’s inaugural award dedicated to emerging South African photographers. Featuring work by D.M. Terblanche, Karabo Mooki and Zwelibanzi Zwane, selected by an esteemed committee comprising Emilie Demon, Jabulani Dhlamini and Michelle Loukidis, New Eyes creates a meaningful dialogue between international photographic excellence and the next generation of South African image-makers.

Together, the exhibitions reflect the Roger Ballen Centre for Photography’s commitment to platforming photography as a powerful artistic and social medium, while strengthening Johannesburg’s role as a site for photographic exchange, education and discovery.