A total of 11,929 photographs were submitted to the competition, from 1,086 photographers in 52 countries. Here are a few of our favorites—a gorgeous mix of sunrises and sunsets, snowstorms and hailstorms and volcanoes of every sort.
Twenty-seven-year-old Abraham Saikley of the U.S. was named Photographer of the Year. He’s spent the past four years living on the road and photographing some of the most dramatic scenery on the planet. This shot, entitled “Shadow Puppets,” is of the Chaltén Massif mountain range on the border of Argentina and Chile. Credit: Abraham SaikleyLukas Furlan of Austria won Photographer of the Year. Among his submissions was this untitled shot of late-fall weather in the Dolomites in northeastern Italy. Credit: Lukas Furlan
This image from Photographer of the Year runner-up Dorin Bofan of Romania features cooling lava seen through hail, snapped at the eruption of the Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland. Credit: Dorin BofanThe image above, “The Still Woods,” was captured in Shizuoka, Japan, by KoKi Dote, who was awarded third place in the Photographer of the Year category. Dote himself is from Japan, and he says “everything was still, as though time had stopped” when the photo was taken. Credit: KoKi DoteGabriel Stankiewicz from Poland captured Project Winner honors for his work under the title “The Pine Constant”—years spent photographing pine forests everywhere from the cold of the Arctic to the warmth of the Mediterranean. This photo, “First Settlers,” is of a high-altitude, volcanic landscape dominated by Canary pines in Tenerife, Spain. Credit: Gabriel StankiewiczThe Project Runner-Up was given to Kenny Muir from the U.K., for his “Caledonian Winter” work photographing the Caledonian Forest in the Scottish Highlands. This dramatic image, “Frozen Forest,” was taken as the morning fog was dispersing, with the rising sun catching some of the forest’s snow-laden branches. Credit: Kenny Muir
The Natural Landscape Photography Awards also include several specific categories. “A Breath Between Storms” took home the Grand Landscape prize. It was captured by Swiss photographer Xavier Lequarre in South Lípez, Bolivia, from nearly 14,800 feet up the side of a volcano. Credit: Xavier LequarreThe Intimate Landscape winner was “Drifting Petals, Fading Spring” by Japanese photographer Hiroyuki Tsuchiya. “The scene evokes the quiet transition of seasons—a fleeting sense of spring lingering for a moment before dissolving into time,” explained Tsuchiya. Credit: Hiroyuki TsuchiyaVincenzo Mazza from Italy secured the Abstract Landscapes award for this photograph of the Skeiðarárjökull glacier in Iceland called “Patterns of Time.” In the words of Mazza: “The patterns of volcanic ash, blending seamlessly with the cracks and crevasses of the ice, tell the story of a timeless ballet between fire and ice.” Credit: Vincenzo MazzaJulian Łoziński from Poland won the Multiple Exposure and ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) category for “Layers of Tree and Water.” This image was captured by a lake in southern Sweden as the sun was setting. The six-shot multiple exposure of trees and their reflections was created entirely in camera. Credit: Julian Łoziński
The Waterscapes category went to Annette Cuthbertson’s “4’s company, 5’s a crowd.” The location is Assynt, in the Northern Scottish Highlands, and the photo was taken during a break in a storm—a few moments when “the scene came alive,” Cuthbertson says. Credit: Annette Cuthbertson
David Nield has written about science and technology for more than 20 years. His work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including Wired, Popular Science, The Guardian, and Gizmodo.
