The Best In Advertising Photography: 2025 Spotlight Awards Winners Announced (15 Pics)

Other winners include Alex Wallace, New Zealand (Corporate & Industrial Photography Category); Dámaso Avila, Spain (Architecture & Interiors Category); and Hanna Kantor, Poland (Portraiture Category).

Now in its eighth edition, the Spotlight Awards focus on advertising photography. This unique event targets commercial photography and has a panel of more than 50 judges composed exclusively of industry experts and potential clients. Some of the top creatives from the most influential brands, ad agencies, and magazines in the world took the time to pick out the best of the Spotlight Awards talents. This year, they had to select their winners among thousands of entries.

Consuelo Bolea, Senior Producer at Red Bull, Spotlight Awards Judge: ‘’Initiatives like the Spotlight Awards are essential because they shine a light on talent that often moves in very different circles: from emerging profiles to more established ones who keep exploring new ways of storytelling. When judging, I try to focus not only on technical or aesthetic quality but also on the image’s ability to move you or tell a story, which isn’t easy when you only have a single frame. I also value the coherence between idea and execution, and the personality of the proposal, where you can see the author’s vision.’’

Judges like Franziska Brunner (Creative Director at Mercedes-Benz, Germany), Ignacio Murillo (Global Talent Casting Director at Vogue, USA), Yazan Al Tamimi (Social & Content Lead at Spotify, UAE), Federigo Gabellieri (Art Director at GQ / Condé Nast, Italy), and Lauren Abrams (Head of Content Production at Apple, USA), among many others, have chosen the winners – making this competition perhaps the most global online portfolio review a photographer could ever have.

For the third year, Production Paradise has included the AI Image Developing & Creating category in its Spotlight Awards. It has invited creatives to develop or create stunning images using AI tools. Vilka (Somm_Bird) from Australia has won the AI category this year.

In addition to AI Image Creating & Developing, a new category introduced this year was Emerging Talent.

Each category has a single winner, and all 50+ judges chose the Grand Prize winner from the 15 category winners.

Our winners receive prizes from sponsors, including picdrop, ModelManagement.com, VSCO, Capture One, and Radiant Photo, supporting photographers with cutting-edge creative tools.

“Our Spotlight Awards have given an opportunity to talented photographers to be directly visible to more than 50 of some of the most influential creative decision-makers around the globe. That is exactly what Production Paradise is all about – great imagery in front of great creatives,” says Mariela von Estorff, CEO of Production Paradise.