The 41 Most Stunning Winning Photos Of 2024 reFocus Photographer Of The Year

Hybrid Solar Eclipse is a very rare astronomical event. I found a Maasai, Peter Ekai Nakua, who agreed to collaborate with me on 3 November 2013. We experienced 16 seconds of totality. A fleeting surreal moment. This picture was created as a tribute to our friend Geoffrey Ekai Lowa.

The number of people struggling with mental health conditions have been rising steadily in the last decade. This image was created in a period of my life when I was struggling with anxiety and an all-consuming feeling of emotional overwhelm.

Samoyed Nanuq beneath sun rays in the forest.

High in the Himalayan foothills of Nepal Gurung honey hunters gather twice a year, risking their lives to harvest the honey from the world’s largest honeybee. For hundreds of years, the skills required to practise this ancient and sacred tradition have been passed down through the generations.

In this underwater photograph, Colombia’s Underwater Hockey team emerges as ethereal figures, blurred at the surface. They resemble superheroes navigating a parallel universe, their dynamic movements creating a surreal, otherworldly scene in the aquatic realm.

The red-eyed tree frog taking a bath.

This a pow wow dancer doing the spotlight dance at the Stillwater Pow Wow in Redding, California.

This vulture in South Africa is hovering over the dead body of a kudu.

A global journey through nature’s grandeur: majestic mountains in the mist, powerful waterfalls in midnight sun, winds sweeping across vast landscapes, rainbows arching over lush valleys, and rivers winding through untouched terrain. Each image reveals the powerful beauty of Earth’s elements.

Images both in color and processed infrared.

Lift your head to hide the double chin.

A wide angle, up close and personal eye-contact view of a black rhino bull in his prime, part of a breeding programme. Did you know that rhino horns are as hard as trigonometry and almost as light as a feather? They are stronger than elephant tusks or buffalo horns as per tests at Oxford University.

Transformation of soil into art.

In the harsh Altai Mountains, Kazakh ‘Burgedchins’ ride with their golden eagles, bonded by 250 years of tradition. Through -40°C winters, they hunt as one, preserving a legacy threatened by time but rooted deeply in the soul of the mountains.

Old man behind the curtain watching his life passing by.

Barcelona’s heartbeat unfolds in this aerial view of the Sagrada Família, surrounded by a grid of vibrant, warm-toned neighborhoods. The cathedral rises like a jewel amid the city’s orderly blocks, capturing a timeless blend of modern structure. An architectural marvel in a city of contrasts.

Texture, form, and intricate details play together in this subtle image.

A beautiful female Caribbean reef shark passed by a big school of fish which resulted in this interesting photo composition. Although the shark was swimming on a different level than the school of fish, the colours and its movement somehow gave the illusion of it blending in.

Classic Tuscany Landscape. I took this shot in mid-June during the harvest. I tried to take a minimalistic scene, a lonely tree on the rolling hills and a cloud more or less over the tree.

Husnah Kukundakwe (15) during an early swim training in Kampala, Uganda. Husnah currently is the country's only classified paralympic swimmer. Her first appearance at the World Championships in London was mentioned among the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC’s) Top 10 Moments of 2019.

They are considered outcasts, having fled their parents' homes and the institutions where they have always been abused. They help each other escape the onslaught of police and malaria in the ruins of the city. They have all chosen to live on the wrong side of freedom.

The financiers fell down to form a tree shape. Christmas with financiers in light and shadow.

Two men were doing their workouts at the bank of the Ganges River early in the morning at Varanasi.

Leaving is never simple. The cycle of returning, hoping, and breaking down feels impossible to escape. This series reflects on the cycle of domestic abuse: the hidden patterns that pull us back, even when we know they hurt. Sometimes, the hardest part isn’t leaving—it’s to stay gone.

Before releasing the bulls into the streets, on the last days of the ceremony, the children climb the walls of the church to protect themselves.

I participated in many of the "motivational and awakening" meetings where crafty instructors, so-called "coaches," make a lot of money for sharing hours and hours of motivational sentences. It looks more like a purgatory exit than a conference hall.

A collective experience of both traditional masculine values and progressive
views form the foundation of this project’s exploration. The male form exists in the photograph alongside abstracted sculptures of space, allusive to the changing landscape of masculinity.

This series refers to the current problem experienced in the oceans and seas. They represent 50% of oxygen production in the world and today they are also affected by the increase in global temperature, pollution, among others. The series was created in a sustainable way using recycled elements.

My work draws inspiration from the "best before" date of food, exploring whether people and their relationships also have an expiration. Using fruits as symbols, I illustrate the evolution of two female characters from strangers to intimacy, then to separation.

Imagine yourself in the middle of the steppe, looking out at the horizon. Your gaze is fixed beyond this meeting of earth and sky, so much so that you see nothing but this inexorable boundary. But stand in silence for a little while, just a little while longer, and it all falls away.