Through the right lens, the world can look entirely different; that is the magic of the 2026 European Photography Awards, which lets photographers turn ordinary scenes, spontaneous encounters, quiet emotions, and surprise moments into images that make you stop scrolling.
The competition is included in the International Awards Associate (IAA) program and received over 100,000 entries from 124 countries, which were assessed by a panel of more than 200 international photography experts. It therefore involves a truly extensive range of talent.
What I appreciate most is the variety; a single photograph can take you into a striking documentary scene, while another might impress you with wildlife, street photography, architecture, fashion, travel, or fine art, and there’s a wonderful element of unpredictability in browsing the winning images.
The awards recognize both professional and amateur photographers, awarding Platinum, Gold, or Silver distinctions to the winning photographs, and the highest awards are the Photographer of the Year and Category of the Year.
As I looked at these photographs, one idea kept recurring to me: good photography doesn’t have to be loud all the time. There are situations in which a single picture can say everything without making a sound.
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#1. Photographer of the Year – People Photography – Culture: The White Harvest by Thea Mihu, Germany
"This photograph documents the traditional salt harvest in Dong Ninh Hoa Ward, part of Vietnam’s Hon Khoi Salt Fields, where manual salt production has sustained local communities for generations. Across hundreds of hectares of shallow evaporation ponds, a small group of workers continues the centuries-old practice of harvesting salt using only seawater, sunlight, and wind."
#2. Photographer of the Year – Nature Photography – Wildlife: Edge of the Feast by Michelle Valberg, Canada
"A humpback whale surges to the surface, mouth wide, pleats stretched, engulfed in the rush of a feeding moment. Water folds around its jaw as the ocean erupts with motion and sound. In a split second of precision and chaos, a gull drops toward the opening, skimming the very edge of the whale’s reach."
Category Winners
#3. Editorial Photography – General News: Silent Resilience by Lucas Dragone, Belgium
"Wuhan, a city of more than ten million souls, breathes in contrasts. In winter’s pale light, these photographs wander through neighborhoods marked for demolition, where walls collapse to give way to vast towers of apartments. Yet amid rubble and silence, daily life continues. This is resilience without noise, resistance without anger: the simple act of living in the heart of disappearance."
#4. People Photography – Culture: Vanishing Worlds by Roberto Pazzi, Italy
"A photographic journey into the fragile beauty of humanity’s disappearing cultural landscapes. Through images of remote places and intimate moments, the project explores communities whose traditions, rituals, and ways of life are slowly being erased by the advance of globalization and technological change."
#5. Nature Photography – Wildlife: Standing Tall by Michelle Valberg, Canada
"A row of king penguins stands shoulder to shoulder along the shore, each one facing into the wind as waves surge and retreat. In the foreground, kelp twists and sweeps with the pull of the water, adding a sense of motion that contrasts with the birds’ stillness. Beyond them, the mountains of South Georgia rise cold and distant, anchoring the scene in scale and place. The composition holds a quiet rhythm."
#6. Fine Art Photography – Portrait: Black Hole by Eva Wang, China
"You’re like a black hole, irresistible to me. I’m absorbed, dominated. Lost my free will. Ripped apart. Spaghettification. Lost in space/time. I no longer belong to myself, but you. Dark, dangerous and alluring Suck me in Hold me down."
#7. Architecture Photography – Drone: Hong Kong From Above by Derry Ainsworth, Hong Kong SAR
"Hong Kong From Above’ is a mesmerizing aerial series by Derry Ainsworth that transforms one of the world’s most vertical territories into a flat canvas of striking geometries and hidden patterns. Moving past traditional street-level chaos, Ainsworth utilizes a top-down, bird’s-eye perspective to strip away the familiarity of the city’s skyline."
#8. People Photography – Culture: Fading – the last of their kinds by Philipp Schmieja, Germany
"Amidst conflicts, colonization, westernization, and modernization, silent cultural treasures still await, carrying quiet testimonies and distant eras. Rites, languages, beliefs, dance, dress, cuisine, and communal systems once shaped identities, yet they are fading—every two weeks an Indigenous language dies."
#9. Editorial Photography – Documentary: Survive to legacy by Philipp Schmieja, Germany
"The Rapid Support Forces and allied Arab militias killed, raped, and abducted Nuba residents in South Kordofan (Sudan) for decades. Nuba are increasingly under pressure to give up their customs, but they are still retaining their distinct culture."
#10. Nature Photography – Natural Art: Veins of Fire by Andreia Costa, Portugal
"Photographed in Guatemala, this image captures one of the most intense moments of the Fuego volcano’s eruptive activity. For a few seconds, the mountain released an explosion of lava and volcanic material that transformed the night into a landscape of light, heat, and movement."
#11. Architecture Photography – Building: L’Arbre Urbain: Montpellier’s white canopy by Felipe Martín-Serrano Ortiz, Spain
"A striking architectural portrait of L’Arbre Blanc by Sou Fujimoto. This shot celebrates its "exuberant canopy" of radical, cantilevered balconies stretching like organic foliage. A sharp, low-angle perspective emphasizes the intricate geometry against the deep blue sky. Crucially, the composition frames the tower’s monumental scale against the human scale of cyclists below, grounding this vertical wonder in the daily urban flow."
Platinum Winners
#12. Nature Photography – Underwater: A Mother’s Wake by GoNagai, Japan
"Every winter, humpback whales return to the warm waters of Okinawa, Japan, to give birth and raise their calves. Respecting their space and keeping a careful distance, I witnessed a quiet moment as a calf followed its mother across the sea. Their journey spoke not of spectacle, but of trust, protection, and the enduring bond between parent and child."
#13. Editorial Photography – Documentary: The Fertile Soil of Resistance by João Coelho, Portugal
"I honor the extraordinary women who transform the barren landscapes of landfills into fertile soil of resistance. Amidst the discarded waste and the backbreaking labor of the dumpsites, I see women raising the pillars of dignity with their bare hands, providing sustenance and hope where the world sees only the end. They are the silent architects of survival, navigating a landscape of decay to find the means to sustain their families."
#14. Nature Photography – Drone: Phoenix Volcano by Yinxuan Chen, China
"Every tremor beneath your feet is the whisper of fire and ice. Here, volcanoes do not merely erupt; they undergo a phoenix-like rebirth—the old earth consumed by flames, a new world rising from the ashes. Here, you may behold icy glaciers standing shoulder to shoulder with molten lava, and detect the faint scent of life upon the black lava fields. This is Earth’s closest approach to myth, where every inch of soil narrates tales of rebirth from the flames."
#15. Editorial Photography – Photojournalism: Beyond the postcard – Haiti’s city of refuge by Philipp Schmieja, Germany
"Once the Paris of the Antilles with picturesque beaches, Cap-Haitien has turned into a refuge city absorbing people who have lost their homes, livelihoods, and any sense of security fleeing the extreme violence and collapse of state authority in Haiti’s capital Port‑au‑Prince."
#16. Nature Photography – Macro: Brings quiet beauty by Ryuta Suzuki, Japan
"Both images were captured entirely handheld using natural light. No focus stacking, monopod, tripod, or flash was used."
#17. Nature Photography – Macro: Glorious sunset by Panagiotis Dalagiorgos, Greece
"A close-up backlit photo of an Empusa fasciata nymph. I took this photo on a mountain near Athens, Greece. I aimed for a composition which focuses on the beautiful light I had. I utilized natural light as well as artificial light for this photo, softening the natural light with a diffusion umbrella and using a flash with an orange gel attacked to it for warmer colour."
#18. Fine Art Photography – Landscape: The Silent Crater 0280 The Narrative by Satheesh Nair, India
"Photographed from above in Iceland’s volcanic highlands, a dormant crater rests in silence — yet streaks of oxidised red and charcoal still spill from its rim like an old wound. Moss slowly reclaims the slopes, while a lone dirt track traces human scale against geological time."
#19. Fine Art Photography – Architecture: Glass Bauhinia by Derry Ainsworth, Hong Kong SAR
"Captured from a dramatic low angle looking up, this composition frames the striking architecture of The Henderson through a dark, curvilinear opening that acts as a natural vignette, isolating the tower against the sky and forcing the viewer’s eye sharply upward. "
#20. Architecture Photography – Exterior: Majestic and imposing by Zhong An Yu, China
"A symmetrically composed architectural photograph forms an ingenious triangular pattern, with the building’s pinnacle soaring straight into the clouds in a display of majestic grandeur. Rendered in warm tones, the image intensifies the viewer’s emotional heat and fervor, pushing this already visually striking architectural scene to its ultimate peak."
#21. Editorial Photography – Documentary: Guardians of tradition: fulani women between generations by Philipp Schmieja, Germany
"In the deep lines of her face, you don’t read chapters—you read wind patterns, grains of sand, and silent nights. Her name is Zeinabu – she is a Senu fulani woman. She has lived for over eight decades in the subtropical savannas between Burkina Faso and the Ivorian border. Her steps are slow now, but each carries the wisdom of many generations. "
#22. Black & White Photography – Wildlife: Madonna of the Blue by Rintaro Ukon by Japan
"A moment encountered while photographing whales in Tonga. Without scuba equipment or artificial lighting, I entered the water alone as a photographer. A mother humpback whale slowly opened her immense body, keeping her calf close beside her. She spread her great pectoral fins and looked directly toward me through the deep blue."
#23. People Photography – Culture: The Poetry of Dust and Horn by Gabi Steiner, Austria
"This series explores daily life within the Mundari cattle camps of South Sudan, where the relationship between people and cattle reaches far beyond practical necessity. Here, cattle are not only a source of livelihood, but an essential part of identity, memory, and belonging. Amid dust, smoke, and ash, everyday moments unfold quietly: children at play, gestures of care, routines repeated from one generation to the next."
#24. People Photography – Children: Weightless morning by Thibault Gerbaldi, United States
"A child runs with a handmade kite along a village road in rural Bali, where kite flying remains a seasonal tradition linked to community life and local craftsmanship. Built collectively and flown during the dry season, these kites reflect the rhythms of village life and the continuity of Balinese cultural practice."
#25. Fine Art Photography – Wildlife: Edge of Night by Jason Marino, Canada
"On a quiet Alberta ridge, a herd of deer pauses at the fragile boundary between earth and sky. Above them, the aurora unfurls in silent waves, painting the darkness with fleeting light. In that suspended moment, wildlife and wilderness share the same breath. Edge of Night preserves a rare moment when stillness and movement meet in the deep hush of night."
#26. Architecture Photography – Abstract: Light in the Grid by Francesco Calarota, Germany
"This series explores the dialogue between urban architecture and artificial light. A seemingly ordinary streetlamp becomes the central protagonist, framed against towering glass facades that create rhythmic lines and patterns. By shifting perspective, the lamp transforms into a monumental object while the skyscraper becomes secondary – a reversal of scale and meaning."
#27. Editorial Photography – Documentary: The Phoenix of Oblivion by João Coelho, Portugal
"The sun sinks below the horizon, casting a thick blanket of smoke across the plain, rising from the burning mountains of waste. After another grueling day, men and women merge with the landscape itself. Among the debris of consumption vomited by the city throughout the day, their hands search hungrily for the iron and aluminum laid bare by the fire."
#28. People Photography – Culture: Guardians of the rainforest by Thibault Gerbaldi, United States
"Deep in the rainforests of Borneo, Dayak warriors emerge through the mist wearing ceremonial headdresses crafted from hornbill feathers, a bird revered as a symbol of strength and the spiritual world. For centuries, the Dayak people have lived in close harmony with the forest, preserving traditions rooted in respect for nature and ancestral knowledge."
#29. Black & White Photography – Wildlife: The Leap to Freedom by Kamome Sky, Japan
"This work captures a single, decisive moment of transition—where a being moves from constraint into liberation. The dark lower space represents a world without freedom, while the brighter upper space symbolizes openness, possibility, and self-expression."
#30. Black & White Photography – Architecture: The Realm of the Stars by Zhong An Yu, China
"This is a visual expression of the interior of a building, emphasizing the tensile force of expansive linear structures. Through the use of an ultra-wide-angle lens, the extension and distortion of the image effectively convey a powerful sense of perspective and visual dynamism. Due to the specific framing of the subject, the spatial perception is rendered exceptionally compelling, as if drawing the viewer into a realm beyond the stars."
#31. Architecture Photography – Building: Mirror Reflections of Architecture Charm by Zhong An Yu, China
"Inspired by the phenomenon of reflection in the natural world, this series of architectural works featuring various geometric structures was captured and produced. The photographs employ front lighting, backlighting, and side lighting to present the three-dimensionality and spatial quality of the buildings, while gradient skies and mirrored compositional arrangements are used to convey the architectural essence and evocative charm."
#32. Nature Photography – Landscapes: Starry Matterhorn by Lukas Trixl, Austria
"It was always a dream of mine to capture this iconic mountain and in September 2025 I made this dream come true. The cherry on top were the great weather conditions for a milky way shot."
#33. Nature Photography – Seasons: Rainbow Cataclysm by Jeremy Janus, United States
"I chased this cell out east of Denver for a couple of hours when I saw this beautiful rainbow form in the wake of storm. The clouds continued to morph as I would stop, shoot, and keep on rolling after this massive cell. At the climactic height of this rainbow, mammatus clouds appeared right above it and offered one of the most mesmerizing moments I have ever had the opportunity to see and capture during my storm chasing adventures."
Frequently Asked Questions:
What are the European Photography Awards in 2026?
The European Photography Awards in 2026 honor exceptional photographers in both professional and amateur divisions. The competition awards powerful images in fields such as documentary, wildlife, travel, fine art, architecture, fashion, editorial, and street photography from around the world.
Who is responsible for organizing the European Photography Awards?
The International Awards Associate program includes the European Photography Awards; the 2026 competition received more than 100,000 entries from 124 countries and a judging panel of over 200 international judges.
What photography categories are there?
The competition includes a wide range of categories, including Fine Art, Documentary, Wildlife, Travel, Architecture, Fashion, Editorial, and Street Photography. This variety lets photographers with different creative methods and visual styles take part.
What awards are available to photographers?
Photographers who win can be awarded Platinum, Gold, or Silver distinctions according to the quality of their photographs, and the competition also bestows its most prestigious awards on both Photographer of the Year and Category of the Year in recognition of outstanding achievement.
What is there worth seeing in the winning photographs?
The winning photographs provide new viewpoints on familiar topics, such as people and places, wildlife and everyday life, conveying emotion, timing, atmosphere, and a narrative in a way that causes viewers to pause and take a second look.
