74 Award-Winning Photos From The 2025 International Photography Awards That Deserve A Closer Look

3rd Place / Nature/Domestic Animals.

Description: “Arabian horses photographed in one of the caves in Cappadocia, Turkey.”

1st Place / Event/Other.

Description: “We are fascinated by the flawless performances of the Japanese aerobatic flying team, who always perform tricks that are far more dangerous than we could ever imagine.”

2nd Place / Nature/Aerial / Drone. Description: “The soda lakes of Kenya are like a beautiful, but bizarre, science experiment. With a high concentration of sodium at the lake bed, the combination of hot springs and minerals creates a myriad of colors and textures. It’s truly Mother Nature’s artistry at its finest. And if that’s not enough, the lakes are home to many thousands of flamingos that feed on the algae. Flying at high altitude in a helicopter, I was able to capture this incredible series of images. The images show an otherworldly landscape, both in isolation from all signs of life and with the flamingos in their natural habitat.”

1st Place / Nature/Landscape. Description: “Namibia challenged my eye and spirit. In Sossusvlei, I watched light dance on endless dunes and shadows stretch like stories across sand. Deadvlei felt frozen in time, its trees standing like ghosts of the past. Swakopmund offered contrast where ocean mist met desert silence. Behind the lens, I wasn’t just capturing landscapes. I was chasing emotion, scale, and the feeling of being small in a place so vast and untouched it felt like another world.”

1st Place / Nature/Domestic Animals.

Description: “Andalusian stallion at liberty, expressing his temperament and character in his powerful movements.”

1st Place / Nature/Aerial / Drone.

1st Place / Special/Night Photography

“A transcontinental giant meets a celestial body — a Boeing 747 framed in silhouette as it cuts across the face of the moon. This monochrome image captures a fleeting alignment of engineering and eternity, highlighting the poetry of flight against the vast stillness of space.”

2nd Place / Nature/Sunrise / Sunset.

Description: “It was early November, a year and a half ago, and I was canoeing through a quiet Louisiana swamp just after sunrise. Soft morning light filtered through the trees, creating a peaceful yet otherworldly atmosphere. A Great Egret glided gracefully across the water, catching my attention and drawing my lens to the richness of the swamp—a warm, thriving place that many creatures call home.”

1st Place / Nature/Environmental / Editorial.

Description: “A lone Sri Lankan elephant forages through a vibrant but toxic landfill in Ampara. Sri Lanka harbors nearly 10% of the global Asian elephant population, yet poor waste management has turned garbage into a deadly lure. As habitats shrink, elephants increasingly scavenge open dumps, developing dangerous addictions to waste. Many suffer from microplastic and polythene indigestion, leading to internal injuries, starvation, and death. This escalating crisis demands urgent reforms in waste disposal and conflict mitigation to ensure coexistence.”

3rd Place / Fine Art/Minimal / Minimalism.

Description: “Legend, a purebred German horse kept at Mr. Vasal's farm in the suburbs of Alborz province, 70 Km to Tehran, Iran.”

3rd Place / Architecture/Aerial / Drone. Description: “Phare du Petit Minou is the name of a lighthouse built in 1848 west of the city of Brest in the Finistère department in Brittany. The picture was taken at blue hour, when suddenly the fog and the onset of rain dramatically intensified the mood. The light from the lighthouse reflected in the fog bank, creating a magical and eerie lighting situation. Despite concerns about the rain, that was reason enough to let the drone fly up briefly and capture the mood on the sensor.”

3rd Place / Nature/Landscape.

Description: “Lencois Maranhenses, Brazil.”

3rd Place / Fine Art/Still Life.

Description: “Modern Vanitas is a reflection on mortality and mass consumption via still lives.”

1st Place / Sports/Winter sports, 1st Place / Editorial / Press/Sports.

Description: “Antti Aalto from Finland in action during his jump at the individual HS137 qualification of the men's Four Hills Tournament in Oberstdorf on 28 December 2024.”

2nd Place / Nature/Environmental / Editorial Description: “Captured in October 2024 in Indonesia, this image shows a local fisherman’s net where three small sharks were caught as bycatch. Attracted by anchovies, the main catch, a whale shark already injured (most probably by a boat propeller), approached but avoided contact. With 100 million sharks killed annually, mostly for fins or bycatch, this whale shark faces its own grim future—brutally killed for human luxury, ignoring the catastrophic impact on our oceans and the survival of humanity.”

2nd Place / Nature/Domestic Animals.

Description: “Bushra the Saluki is walking on water at the beach in the Netherlands.”

1st Place / Fine Art/Landscape.

Description: “This is a view of Mount Bromo taken in Indonesia. I snapped the shutter at the moment it erupted from the active volcano. The sky and the earth are tinted pink by the morning glow, and the ground is filled with a sea of clouds.”

3rd Place / Special/Night Photography.

Description: “In response to my art, a woman once challenged me saying, "Lol, who would have thought photography would be political?" Indeed, I believe art by its very nature is political. It must be political. We live in dangerous times. We must use whatever voice is ours to use. Our silence is a complicity. The handmaid, once a character of fiction, now walks the streets in protests. In this image, the silent figure under the electric eye is not a figure of submission, but defiance. The handmaid's costume is no longer a costume. It is a uniform of protest, a scarlet flare against institutional darkness.”

2nd Place / Event/Other.

Description: “The Black Rock City of Burning Man in the depths of the desert only exists for eight days a year, and two travelers walk towards the temple that will be burned.”

1st Place / Editorial / Press/Other.

Description: “Lost in the woods of Russia's Kaluga region, Nikola-Lenivets art park is Europe's largest site for land art and contemporary design. Founded by Nikolay Polissky, it spans the Ugra Nature Reserve, becoming a major art hub still attracting artists worldwide. Recently, amidst rising military mood in Russia, the park remains committed to peace. Park's festivals like Archstoyanie, Maslenitsa, and Signal offer rare spaces of joy and freedoom, blending multiculturalism, pagan themes, and historical reinterpretation allowing visitors to escape from gloomy environment and embrace art, music, and unity.”

2nd Place / Editorial / Press/Environmental.

Description: “Plastic pollution is a global issue, but Southeast Asia is the most affected region in the world for three reasons: poor waste management by many governments, ocean currents that draw trash to its shores, and the importation of waste from wealthy countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the European Union. This work represents two years of exploring some areas most impacted by plastic pollution. The plastic waste crisis is growing like a wave, with increasingly severe effects on the health of our planet and humanity.”

1st Place / Analog / Film/Photojournalism.

Description: “Earthquake in a village near the city of Qazvin in Iran. A boy searches in confusion for other family members and his belongings and school supplies hours after his house was destroyed.”

2nd Place / Fine Art/Minimal / Minimalism.

Description: “This photo was taken at the viewing platform called Rusty Nail.”

3rd Place / Event/Other.

Description: “A candid capture at WOMAD festival. Every day of the festival tipped over 35 degrees Celsius – people were trying to cool down however possible. Commissioned by WOMADelaide.”

3rd Place / Editorial / Press/General News.

Description: “Training was conducted simulating an aircraft accident. Two people bravely faced the raging flames. The raging flames were soon subdued. I hope their training does not become a reality.”

1st Place / Architecture/Industrial.

Description: “In the falling snow of Niigata City, an everyday scene reveals a microcosm of modern society. Residential homes huddle under the gaze of industrial smokestacks, their plumes merging with the winter clouds. A single railway track cuts through the heart of the town, an artery connecting life and labor. At its crossing, a lone figure on a red motorcycle provides a fleeting pulse of humanity against the monochrome landscape. This photograph captures that intricate, often stark, coexistence—the quiet rhythm of daily life playing out on a vast industrial stage.”

1st Place / Architecture/Cityscapes.

Description: “A year-long photographic journey documenting the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh. As the world’s largest LEED Platinum-certified mixed-use district, KAFD embodies architectural innovation and sustainability. Designed by iconic firms like Zaha Hadid and Foster + Partners, this project highlights the district’s significance as a global architectural landmark.”

2nd Place / Special/Night Photography.

Description: “Cradle Mountain becomes something special when it's covered in mist and aurora australis. Such an unusual composition, found in the wilds of Tasmania.”

3rd Place / Nature/Sunrise / Sunset.

Description: “Among the wilderness, traces of the pure West remain. They unfold in rare living scenes unspoiled by man's influence. Cued by the rising sun, this bull moose relocated to feeding ground under the canopy of river bank cottonwoods in the heart of his majestic homeland.”

3rd Place / Fine Art/Landscape.

Description: “The Antarctic landscape, a place where everything is experienced differently as the cold and silence focus the senses and the mind. This world of white on white offers a simplicity that allows complexity to be understood. Is it “complexity within simplicity” or “simplicity within complexity”? Annually growing and shrinking as the sea ice forms and melts with the seasons. As the sea ice grows, the sea shrinks – as the sea shrinks, the sea ice grows. Everything is connected. Here the only consistency is change. Change being constant, but not always consistent. Ross Sea, Antarctica.”

3rd Place / Editorial / Press/Environmental.

Description: “In September 2024, southeastern Morocco witnessed a rare Sahara Desert flood caused by an extratropical cyclone, delivering more rain in two days than the region typically receives in a year.The deluge transformed the arid landscape, filling Lake Iriqui—a dry lakebed untouched for over 50 years.A drone view shows sand dunes and palm trees partially covered by floodwaters, after rare rainfall hit the area last September, in Merzouga, Morocco, October 24, 2024.”

1st Place / Architecture/Bridges.

Description: “In the early morning, the Qiantang River was shrouded in swirling mist. The Jiashao Bridge loomed faintly through the haze, veiled in a delicate gauze of fog. The morning mist and river surface shimmered with a golden glow under the sunlight, creating a striking interplay of warm and cool tones. I captured this fleeting moment with the 7x telephoto lens of my drone!”

1st Place / Architecture/Aerial / Drone.

3rd Place / Analog / Film/Portrait.

Description: “Featherstone Street Darkside is an ongoing series of constructed portraits of people who through various collaborations and creative involvements, had become well known to me over the past five decades. I photographed the portraits in a mini box/set which was designed with the sitters relationship to me in mind. Using artificial studio lights, a large format camera, and 4x5 film, this series follows on from Featherstone Street 2021 (IPA 2022) which was shot using only natural daylight and consisted of more formally posed portraits.”

3rd Place / Analog / Film/Fine Art.

Description: “In a vast and silent desert, a car suspended in the air defies the laws of the world, floating between the sky and the earth—a symbol of longings and dreams that transcend gravity. The golden dunes whisper stories of the ephemeral, while the sun tints the horizon with shades of melancholy. This moment captures the essence of the internal struggle, where emotions rise like the vehicle in the air, reflecting the tension between freedom and reality. In this surreal landscape, each gaze at the suspended car evokes a question: What anchors us to the ground, and what elevates us to the sublime?”

1st Place / Nature/Sunrise / Sunset.

Description: “In the silence of a seemingly calm barrier, a supercell emerges with the force of a natural colossus. This image captures the moment of balance between light and darkness, beauty and threat, when the sky bends over the earth as if breathing before the storm. A surrender of human vulnerability in the face of the grandeur and unpredictability of nature.”

1st Place / Editorial / Press/Environmental.

Description: “In the region surrounding Istanbul (Turkey's largest city) known as the Northern Forests, handmade charcoal production dates back to the 2000s BC and continues to these days. But experts say that the forests are now at serious risk as a result of increasing urbanization, mining activities and climate change in the region in recent years. Climate change also has an impact on the activity of traditional charcoal producers, known for building circular arrangements of oak wood called torluk.”

2nd Place / Architecture/Cityscapes.

Description: “On Christmas morning 2020, with the streets still quiet and wrapped in holiday stillness, I chased a vision I had carried for years—one that came alive in the skies above San Francisco. The sunrise promised something special, so I jumped in the car before dawn, heart racing with anticipation. As the first golden light spilled across the city, a rare display of mammatus clouds rolled in overhead, their textured, otherworldly beauty transforming the moment into something surreal. Framed against the awakening skyline, the scene aligned perfectly with the image I had always imagined.”

1st Place / Architecture/Buildings.

Description: “Falling Out of Time captures a moment of stillness, where a lighthouse rises into the evening sky, its solitary figure merging with the endless horizon. It speaks to the timelessness of great architecture, which shapes both our surroundings and our identities, helping us understand who we are and where we're headed.”

2nd Place / Architecture/Bridges.

Description: “Illuminated by the morning sun, it looked like a woman's body. The contrast between man-made objects and nature was very attractive.”

1st Place / People /Wedding.

“I'm a full time elopement/wedding photographer and I love finding the most spectacular places for my couples to get married and to take their wedding photos at. When I create these fine art photographs for my clients my main goals are to capture their love for each other and to create photos for them that they will want to have hanging on their walls.”

3rd Place / Nature/Aerial / Drone.

Description: “Useless Loop is a remote industrial settlement on the western edge of the Shark Bay World Heritage Area in Western Australia. Despite its quirky name, it plays a vital role in Australia’s solar salt production and is surrounded by some of the most pristine marine and coastal environments in the country.”

2nd Place / Fine Art/Landscape.

Description: “This is the Caracal Desert in the city of Yazd; its sands stretch like peaks of light towards God. In this photo, I tried to capture a dramatic atmosphere that captures the feeling of loneliness and solitude with God. In order to give this photo a fine art feel and also to instill a more spiritual feeling in the photo, I used Photoshop and editing tools for exaggeration. With the Liquify and Transform tools, I made the peaks and dunes of the desert more elongated and highlighted the shape and form of the dunes, to make it closer to the fine art style.”

1st Place / Event/Social Cause, 3rd Place / Editorial / Press/Political.

Description: “I don’t think that the world knows that on any given day in Washington, DC, the streets pulse with defiance — two, four, six protests erupting against the growing threat of fascism. Through my lens, I bear witness to these protests, using many angles to show not just what’s happening, but how it feels. I shoot for more than documentation, not just the handmade signs people hold, but a visual testimony to their courage and fury. I try to tell a deeper story of resistance, resilience and what the fight for justice looks like. I want these photos to be lasting evidence that we will not be silent.”

3rd Place / Editorial / Press/Other.

Description: “This image was taken during a breathtaking performance from the Las Vegas Water Circus show in Israel. The acrobat’s aerial performance, enhanced by actual rain, smoke, and dramatic lighting, transforms the scene into something otherworldly. It evokes the sense of a celestial being soaring through a distant galaxy, blending artistry and imagination to create a surreal and cosmic story.”

2nd Place / Editorial / Press/General News.

Description: “The 2025 Palisades Fire, one of the largest urban wildfires in the US, caused significant devastation in Los Angeles. It altered the natural landscape, disrupted residents' lives, and underscored the urgent need to revisit Indigenous practices like controlled burning and constructing buildings with natural, local materials. In the photograph, the Malibu Feed Bin, a 59-year-old historic landmark and community gathering place, stands in ruins. Next door, Oasis Imports also succumbed to the flames, leaving only the sculptures of Buddha, a symbol of peace and tranquility, behind.”

2nd Place / Architecture/Other.

Description: “This series reflects on the transformation of the urban façade in an age of relentless visual consumption. In cities saturated with light and information, LED screens no longer serve as accessories—they dominate.”

3rd Place / Architecture/Interior.

Description: “Designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, the worship space in The Cathedral of Christ the Light is a vesica piscis shape (translated into English means fish bladder), the shape formed by the intersection of two circles. The walls are composed of overlapping panels of wood and glass rising skyward to form the vault, much like the scales of a fish. The design allows light to filter in, reminiscent of how light filters through a canopy of tall redwood trees in a wooden glade.”

3rd Place / Architecture/Bridges.

Description: “The Park Union Bridge in Colorado Springs was designed as both a physical and symbolic connector, linking America’s Park to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum and extending into the greater downtown area. When photographing this project, I focused on how people interact with the bridge. How they move through it, pause along its span, and view it from a distance. The resulting images reflect a space defined by accessibility, celebration, and civic pride, firmly anchored in place yet built to bring people together.”

2nd Place / Analog / Film/Architecture.

Description: “Although it was a cold winter day the sunlight was harsh and created deep shadows. As it start to set only a few elements of the layered NYC cityscape caught some light. The steam in a subzero temperature adds to the noir feel.”

2nd Place / Nature/Landscape.

Description: “Volcanoes photographed in Iceland, Hawaii, and Guatemala. 2016 Kilauea Volcano flow in Hawaii 2018 Fissure 8 Eruption in Hawaii 2021 Fagradalsfjall Eruption in Iceland 2022 Fuego Volcano in Guatemala.”

3rd Place / Event/Traditions and Cultures.

Description: “Love, devotion, and responsible manliness blend with festive rejoicing in the 13th century Khandoba temple. In this celebration, tonnes of turmeric mixed with coconut (called Bhandara) is offered by devotees to the god Khadoba. A 470-step climb to the temple in searing tropical heat, sees believers of all ages offer obesience to the deity and pray for his blessings. For newly-weds, the husband carries his wife all the way up to the sanctum, a promise to bear her responsibilities no matter how hard life gets. This celebration sees more than a million devotees visit the temple in two days.”

2nd Place / Architecture/Interior.

Description: “The Small Chapel is located on the western cemetery in Aarhus, Denmark. Designed by the renowned Danish architect Henning Larsen in 1969, the chapel is a beautiful example of architecture that combines functionality with aesthetics. The chapel provides an atmospheric setting for small ceremonies. Its simple yet carefully considered design allows light to flow freely through the space, enhancing the chapel’s serene ambiance. The chapel is a place for reflection and the final farewell. The architecture supports a dignified and intimate experience.”

3rd Place / Architecture/Industrial.

Description: “This photo is a description of the process by which Korea's residential culture is created. They prefer to live in a communal area called apartments. This is a very large, large space, but it is built very quickly and easily. Ironically, people seem to live in a group, but they are indifferent to their neighbors and live in isolation. The photo emphasizes that the process by which apartments are built is very spectacular.”

2nd Place / Architecture/Industrial.

Description: “It is not really a chimney. It is a tank from which water entered the boilers and was heated by the energy obtained from the combustion of coal. This water vapor drove the turbines to produce the electric current and was then converted into liquid water in the condensers before being returned to the boiler to start a new cycle. Former thermal power station producing electricity from coal as a raw material.”

1st Place / Analog / Film/Portrait.

2nd Place / Analog / Film/Nature.

2nd Place / Event/Traditions and Cultures

Description: Qoyllur Rit’i is the snow and star festival of Peru. It is the most important pilgrimage in the entire Andes. Peru is a Catholic country. Still, it is very much a syncretic one, meaning that Andean cosmology and spiritual tradition live alongside Catholic belief. Every year, around May or June, about 100,000 people walk 8 kilometers up high in the mountains to pray the "Lord of Qoyllur Rit’i", at 4,700 meters above the sea level in the region of Cusco. Thousands of dancers and musicians perform and celebrate religious beliefs during more than a week.

Event Photographer Of the Year.

Description: “A once-in-144 years phenomenon. Ash-smeared Hindu holy men (Naga Sadhus) charged into India's most sacred river Ganges at dawn on the first most significant bathing day of the Kumbh Mela festival. An extraordinary display of human unity, spiritual energy, and collective consciousness.”

1st Place / Architecture/Other

1st Place / Architecture/Interior.

Description: “The St. Pancras Hotel In Camden, London, situated between Kings Cross Station and the British Library, is a beautiful restored Victorian Gothic Revival hotel originally opened in 1873 as the Midland Grand Hotel. It highlights a beautiful grand staircase with stained-glass window, ornate plasterwork and a sweeping staircase.”

2nd Place / Architecture/Aerial / Drone.

Description: “I have shot aerial photography of Los Angeles for years, from downtown to the beaches. This past January, LA endured extreme wildfire disasters driven by the Santa Ana winds. Once the fires were contained and died down, I got the opportunity to go up in a helicopter and view the devastation from the air.”

Analog / Film Photographer Of the Year.

Description: “Based on an intuitive, surreal narration the photographic series of Piotr Zbierski are constantly asking questions on relationships between nature and culture as well as between memory and narration. What happens between experience and the act of telling a story about it? Where does memory end and diary begins? His photography also connects the material reality with the wider spiritual understanding of the world. The works, very poetic and full of pure emotions, the depths of the human soul and the mysteries of life and death. Time feels like a place a house in constant renovation and expansion.”

1st Place / Analog / Film/Nature.

Description: “Bill Hao made an Extra Large Format Camera(32X48inch) and using Wetplate Collodion Process to captures the breathtaking landscapes. He converted a 50 seats tour bus into an off grid mobile darkroom because this process requires immediate development after exposure. These beautiful natural landscapes are disappearing, The Canadian Rocky Mountains are devastated by wildfires every year, In July 2024, the largest wildfire in a century destroyed half of the town of Jasper and 32,000 hectares of forest, there were 57 wildfires burning in National Parks so far in 2025.”

Fine Art Photographer Of the Year.

Description: “In a world that monitors, analyzes, and controls everything, I am drawn to the shadows, to those pockets of mystery that even the most advanced technologies have yet to colonize. Among these untamed territories lies the unconscious: a vast continent of ambiguity and vertigo, whispering its truths through the language of symbols and dreams. I set out to explore this mental space where reason gives way to instinct. A realm where words falter and images take over. An invitation, not to understand, but to feel. A descent into what we are, in the most secret part of ourselves.”

2nd Place / Editorial / Press/Travel / Tourism.

Description: “The best Taiwanese oolong tea is harvested in the early morning when there are still dewdrops on the tea leaves. It is picked under the first rays of sunlight, preserving the most mellow flavor and freshness. I use my camera to capture this special season, unique tea variety, and the most beautiful moments in time. Professional guides in the travel industry will also led you to experience the most beautiful landscapes and sensations at the best times.”

1st Place / Editorial / Press/Travel / Tourism.

3rd Place / Architecture/Other.

Description: “Longyearbyen is the central town of Svalbard, Norway, and is a small town famous for its smaller population than polar bears. The walls of these buildings are painted with colorful colors, and these intense colors embroidered against the backdrop of snow-covered snow mountains caught my eyes and tried to capture them through the camera.”

3rd Place / Architecture/Cityscapes.

Description: “National Museum of African American History and Culture (foreground left) and Washington Monument (rear center/right), Washington, DC.”

3rd Place / Architecture/Buildings.

1st Place / Analog / Film/Architecture.

Description: “This image captures a hauntingly silent moment at a once-bustling desert stop, now a ghost of the past reclaimed by time and nature. Shot on Ilford Delta 100, 120 film, it’s part of a series exploring the forgotten edges of the Salton Sea. These abandoned places echo with untold stories and stalled journeys. Stark shadows and graffiti intensify the mood, making this “Deserted Refuel” station a striking symbol of solitude, decay, and the quiet passage of time in an expansive, forgotten landscape.”

2nd Place / Analog / Film/Fine Art.

Description: “This series consists of images made from many sailings aboard ferries crossing the waters in the state of Washington. While the images explore the various interiors and shifting light aboard the vessels, they also explore the duality of our lived experience between the built environment and the natural world. In some images, the window is both a lens for viewing but also a boundary that separates us from the landscape.”

1st Place / Fine Art/Minimal / Minimalism.

Description: “This series executed in long exposure represents some objects for fishing “moeche”(tender crabs during the molting stage), one of the gastronomic specialties of Venice that is disappearing due to the lack of catch. Every year the crabs decrease for various reasons and likewise the fishermen decrease until the objects used for such fishing are abandoned.”

2nd Place / Architecture/Buildings.

Description: “The building, designed by British architect Zaha Hadid, was designed in a very minimalist style. Forms and extravagant lines give the architecture a great deal of momentum and depth. I transformed the architect's minimalist philosophy into my photography, reinforcing the building's structures through my lighting and shadow design. The decision to use black and white photography supports the clear form of the architecture.”