Few annual events bring on a case of itchy feet as reliably as the Travel Photographer of the Year awards, especially at a time when our worlds may be feeling pretty small. From intricately detailed images of the world’s most beguiling wildlife to portraits of humanity and sweeping, ethereal landscapes, the winning images create a global gallery sure to inspire awe and wanderlust. Here’s a selection of some of our favourites we can gaze at from home.
Azim Khan Ronnie won the iTravelled category for a single image taken with a phone or tablet with this captivating, colourful image of people coming together in prayer at the National Mosque of Bangladesh, or Baitul Mukarram. The overhead image captures both the intricacy of the teal-and-gold structure and the synchronicity of the worshippers. The photographer, from Bangladesh, has won more than 400 awards for his images, which focus on awe-inspiring moments around the world.
From the clearly defined footprints to the soft, golden light of sunrise that glows around the lone figure, Mark Anthony Agtay has beautifully captured the topic of Solitude, winning top spot in that single image category. Agtay, who is from the Philippines and now lives and works in Abu Dhabi, framed the moment on the beach in Botolan, in the province of Zambales.
This lone rocky outcrop just off the coast of Taiwan finds itself in the eye of the storm in this dramatic, striking image by experienced UK-based photographer and filmmaker David Newton. His capture of the waves battering the pock-marked rock, transforming it into a tiny island, took first place in the One Shot – Islands category.
The uniform blue-and-white palette of the trays of fish (and worker’s shirt) create a mesmerising image, highlighted further by the unexpected pop of colour from the beautiful yellow hat. Taken at Long Hai fish market in the Vietnamese province of Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu, where thousands of trays of fry are dried in yards and on rooftops, it earned Khánh Phan a special mention in the Travel Portfolio category.
It took a lot of patience and a quick reaction to get this shot of one of the world’s longest mosaic murals in Hanoi’s Long Biên district. Paul Sansome, a UK-based photographer, waited at a busy junction while heavy traffic slowed in all directions, eventually framing a photo with just one single bike passing by. The eye-catching image was named best single image in the Travel Portfolio category.
This breathtaking landscape in Kalsoy, part of the remote Faroe Islands, is home to the candy-striped Kallur Lighthouse – but it’s the wild, dramatic beauty of the cliffs that Italian photographer Alessio Mesiano strove to represent. Mesiano, who divides his time between Milan, Italy and the Faroe Islands, endured bitingly cold conditions to capture the coastline in its most beautiful light.
French photographer Nicolas Raspiengeas was highly commended for his Travel Portfolio entry, which included images of snowy landscapes in Scandinavia and Iceland. This shot of the Northern Lights or aurora borealis was taken under a full moon on Senja Island, with the swirl of green particularly striking against the snow-blanketed landscape.
Richard Li took this beautiful sunset image soon after arriving at Meteora, a rock formation in central Greece that’s home to a complex of Eastern Orthodox monasteries. The structures perch vertiginously on huge natural pillars and boulders, creating an incredible, otherworldly sight. It’s one of the captivating images that saw Li named runner-up in the Travel Portfolio category.
Hong Kong–based photographer Richard Li has an eye for capturing beautiful detail on his travels, from tiny insects to sweeping landscapes and wildlife, as shown in this delightful shot of giraffes skipping across the plains in Olkiramatian Conservancy, Kenya. Li was on a helicopter ride en route back to his camp at sunset when he spotted the elegant animals.
This aerial shot could conceivably depict an ambitious art installation or a spectacular runway outfit at a fashion show. Nguyễn Phước Hoài’s photo is actually of a fishing boat by An Hoa village in the Tuy An district of Vietnam’s Phu Yen province. The way the fisherman casts his net creates a flowing movement that the Vietnamese photographer felt resembled “a heart in the sea”. The striking, stylish composition earned the photographer a special mention in the People of the World Portfolio Single Images category.
Piper Mackay’s shots of pilgrims gathering around the churches and monasteries of Lalibela were highly commended in the People of the World category. The US photographer captured the shots using an infrared lens, creating a beautifully soft but striking tone. This image shows worshippers around the 12th-century Church of Saint George or Bete Giyorgis, one of 11 rock-hewn churches in Lalibela whose cross-shaped structure is chiselled straight into the ground and accessed via tunnels and stairways.
A series of touching images depicting rural life in Portugal earned photographer Jorge Bacelar the runner-up title in the People of the World Portfolio category. Images such as this one of farmer Abílio da Fonseca show the bond between man and animal (in this case, goat). The octogenarian has always worked as a farmer in Murtosa in Portugal’s Aveiro district and now spends most of his time looking after his animals.
This poignant image captures the unspeakable horror and heartbreak of war. The man, pictured in Eastern Ghouta, had lost his children in a massacre that killed 80 people. It’s one of a remarkable set of images depicting war in Syria taken by Mouneb Taim, who started his career in 2014 as a teenager living under siege. His series showing the effects of war alongside the hope and determination of people won him first place in the People of the World category.
Edward Hyde received a special mention in the Landscapes and Earth Elements Portfolio category for this striking, beautifully detailed shot of waves crashing over the harbour wall in Newhaven, Sussex. The UK-based photographer took the image from the beach during Storm Brian in October 2017. He was fascinated by the shapes and character of the waves, which in this particular photograph seem to form a serpent preparing to engulf the lighthouse.
This rowing boat appears to be floating in the clouds, tinged with the soft pink light of sunrise. It was actually taken on the Padma River in Rajbari, showcasing how Bangladesh’s many rivers criss-cross the land, dotted with islands or “char”. It earned Australia-based photographer Mohammad Rahman a special mention in the Landscapes and Earth Elements Portfolio category.
Australian photographer James Smart captured the very moment a rare anti-cyclonic tornado or “drill bit” tore across farmland just outside Simla in Colorado. The image, which shows the storm swirling and tearing up the ground after just missing a nearby home, was named the best single image in the Landscapes and Earth Elements Portfolio category.
Discover more images that demonstrate the power of Mother Nature
A set of images showcasing the dramatic beauty of Lake Baikal in Russia was highly commended in the Landscapes and Earth Elements Portfolio category. Russian Sergey Pesterev captured a chilly, ethereal world with photographs so vivid you can almost hear the creaking and cracking sounds of the ice reacting to temperature changes. This picture shows Olkhon, one of the islands on the world’s deepest lake.
Paddy Scott was highly commended in the Landscapes and Earth Elements Portfolio category for his gorgeous shots of the Karakorum range in Pakistan’s Himalayas. The UK-based photographer took the images while stranded at base camp during an expedition and beautifully captured the way the swirling mist obscured and in turn revealed the jagged mountain peaks.
Australian Scott Portelli earned the runner-up spot in the Landscapes and Earth Elements Portfolio category with these otherworldly images of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre in South Australia. The country’s largest salt lake is only covered with floodwaters around once every eight years, so the landscape is usually dominated by salt plains and bore springs. Portelli perfectly captured the intricate patterns and earthy palette of yellows and reds.
Alessandro Carboni, from Italy, won the Landscapes and Earth Elements Portfolio category with a series of images taken in his native Sardinia. The striking, bright-white photographs were captured in the Park of Giara in the centre of the island. Carboni waited patiently for a blizzard to hit to achieve the dramatic shots of the snow flurries.
It may seem like there are two flying fish in this vivid photograph by Marco Steiner, from Austria – but it’s actually just the one. Taken during a blackwater dive in the diving destination of Anilao in the Philippines’ province of Batangas, the mirroring effect of the water, darkness of night and foam forming in the surface conspired to create an incredible optical illusion. The photo was one of several nighttime diving shots that won Steiner the top spot in the Nature, Sealife, Wildlife Portfolio category.
This fabulously fluffy feline certainly seems to know how to work the camera. The arresting image was taken by Australian photographer Joshua Holko in Mongolia’s remote Wild Steppe region who was taken with the cat’s round body, puffed up by its winter coat. The cat stayed obligingly still while he took the perfect shot. It caught the attention of judges, too, earning Holko a special mention in the Nature, Sealife, Wildlife Portfolio category.
USA-based Neil Shet was named runner-up in the 14 Years And Under category for his beautiful shots of rural landscapes on New Zealand’s South Island. He took the series, including this photograph of grazing sheep against a backdrop of rolling hills, during the “golden hour” just before sunset, imbuing the images with a warm, pinkish hue softened by overhead fog.
Crowned winner in the 14 Years And Under category, 11-year-old Miguel Sánchez García, learned to take gorgeous images with his father. The Spanish rising star loves to train his lens on natural landscapes and wildlife, particularly in the mountains. His winning images – including this shot of the Forest of Finland in the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains just outside Madrid – look at forests from a different, dreamily beautiful perspective.
Nayana Rajesh’s images of night skies earned her the title of runner-up in the 15-18 age category, with striking images of stars and city lights in New Mexico, Texas and California. This incredible, sparkling image of a silhouette against a star-blanketed sky was taken in summer 2018 in California’s Lone Pine, when Rajesh, who’s 16, was on a trip with her dad.
Massachusetts-based Ben Skaar spent two nights sleeping in his car to get the perfect shots of New Hampshire’s White Mountains, and the resulting photographs won him the title of Young Travel Photographer of the Year in the 15-18 category. This particular shot was taken with a drone, capturing the autumn colours at their most vivid and blazing at sunrise.
Indigo Larmour took the title of overall Young Travel Photographer of the Year 2019 – and impressed the judges enough to win the accolade for the second year running. The talented 12-year-old was born in Abu Dhabi, is Irish in nationality and has spent the past two years living in India. She took these atmospheric shots of Lahore’s walled Old City during pre-COVID-19 travels with her family, capturing the awakening streets just after sunrise.
This beguiling shot of an Arctic fox was captured during a blizzard on Spitsbergen, part of the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. Vladimir Alekseev, there on an expedition, was charmed by the way the beautiful creature almost merged with the environment. And the judges were so impressed with this and the rest of the Russian photographer’s portfolio, they crowned Alekseev their overall winner.
The accomplished photographer, who works as an editor and photographer and has been published in several travel and geographic magazines, has headed up more than 50 photo-research expeditions including in his native Russia. His winning portfolio also included this spectacular eruption of Plosky Tolbachik Volcano in Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, taken at dusk to amplify the glowing magma.
Another of Alekseev’s eclectic but consistently enchanting captures of the natural world is this timely shot of the total solar eclipse, taken in Svalbard on March 20, 2015. A blizzard and thick cloud cover had threatened to eclipse the eclipse, with the weather clearing just an hour before the astronomical event.