Sony has unveiled the incredible pictures taken by student photographers who are bidding to scoop the world's best picture prize.
Students from all registered universities are given the chance to enter the free competition by submitting between three and five images per institution.
From this, a shortlist of ten students are selected, and given a second and final challenge where they have to send between five and ten further images.
The finalists are all given Sony Digital Imaging equipment and flown to London for the Sony World Photography Awards ceremony.
Comprising of four judging categories Professional, Open, Student and Youth, the competition attracted more than 327,000 entries from photographers across the world this year alone.
The winner of the competition will receive €30,000 worth of Sony photography equipment for their university.
Below is a showcase of the shortlisted entrants.
Cassidy Power from the University of Auckland - Elam said her entry was based on her 'queer lived existence'. She worte: 'I sit here now once; do you think it will be different to sit here again? I'm nervous, more nervous than I expected. Thank you for the coffee this morning. You are reading at the queer event for Pride Month. Two more days. I'm sitting here, and I cannot sit still. My binder is damp because I forgot to hang it out to dry last night. It's 10.12am. Three minutes to go. I love you'
Cassidy continued: 'I write this while waiting for my appointment at the sexuality clinic. A copy of National Geographic's January 2017 issue titled Gender Revolution is on the table. The shifting landscape of gender. How can I survey the shifting landscape which is my own body with photography? It is in flux and I am fully aware of its boundaries or limitations. This is a snapshot of my queer lived experience in images'
Joel Davies, who studies at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, featured a French student graduitaing - and then having to leave Britain. He said: 'We're told graduating is exciting. A celebratory step towards the future. A bright new beginning. However for Alice, it presents a lonely prospect; a loss of belonging. For a French student in London, it means leaving four years of life behind. Leaving her boyfriend, leaving best friends, leaving course mates, leaving her home, and losing her community. And as we leave the European Union, will she ever belong again? Will it be a final farewell?'
Joel continued: 'One last adieu. The project aimed to capture the stages of losing belonging as Alice progresses through her final year, mourning her belonging but also mine. Conveying my own anxieties at losing my girlfriend of over three years and leaving the EU'
Sam Delaware from Pacific Union College, California, created 'Dissonance'. Sam said it 'is a visual exploration of the space between preconceived ideas and physical reality'
Taken in Northern California, this series reflects a search for belonging in a landscape of concrete and shifting national identity
Also shortlisted for the award is this photograph from Tobias Kobborg Kristensen from the Danish School of Media and Journalism, part of an intimate series of portraits for two lovers
Tobias's piece shows Shais and Rahul who have been together for a couple of months. Shais wishes they will die together
Leonie Synott-Bruson from the College de Matane, said: 'I am French Canadian, from Montreal, and I belong to the largest French-speaking territory in North America. Québec is a province with its own particular culture, distinct from its surroundings. What makes me belong to Québec?'
She continued: 'According to my experience, Québec is: winter and hockey season, maple syrup
