A photograph doesn’t have to show a great deal in order to have a striking effect: a single person, a solitary building, a stretch of fog, a thin strip of light. That is the magic of minimalist photography, and the Minimalist Photography Awards 2026 offer many such examples.
The photography competition this year includes 13 categories such as Abstract, Aerial Photography, Architecture, Conceptual, Fine Art, Landscape, Long Exposure, Night Photography, Open, Photomanipulation, Portrait, and Street; in this instance we are highlighting the winners who came in first, second, and third place, compiling 36 outstanding photographs into a single collection.
The top award goes to Marcin Giba from Poland, who has been named Photographer of the Year 2026 in the Minimalist category for his powerful series The Last Winter. His photographs show the gentle beauty of simple landscapes and demonstrate that a great deal can be conveyed through a good deal of emptiness.
The winner is awarded a cash prize of €2,000, a handcrafted trophy, and the honour of receiving the prestigious title, and the authors in each category obtain global exposure as a result of the official Annual Book and gallery exhibition.
As Milad Safabakhsh, the founder, points out, minimalism serves to remind us that an image needn’t be complicated in order to be powerful; and when you look at these winning examples, it’s pretty difficult to dispute that.
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#1. Abstract – 1st Place: Lines and Light in Antelope Canyon by Lucia Cooper
"The curved parallel lines and the light glancing off the edges of the rocks is what drew me to Antelope Canyon."
#2. Abstract – 2nd Place: Calmerchroma by Richard Bentley
"Richard’s calmerchroma series represents a shift from his black and white work to a world of vibrant colours, minimal shapes and shadows and the interplay between colour, form and minimalism."
#3. Abstract – 3rd Place: Calligraphy of Nature by Hyeong gyu ku
"To me, the camera is a brush. Through the technique of multi-exposure, I layer different moments of time and space into a single frame, breathing new vitality and rhythm into static landscapes. The overlapping forms of trees become abstracted, like the layers and gradations of ink on traditional paper, blurring the lines between photography and
painting. This is a visual record of nature’s energy built layer by layer—an aesthetic attempt to condense scattered moments into a single, calligraphic expression."
#4. Minimalist Photographer Of The Year & Aerial – 1st Place: The Last Winter by Marcin Giba
"These photos are from the series “The Last Winter,” which I created this winter in my hometown of Rybnik, Poland. I shot them using a drone and they capture the incredible forms nature has created on the frozen lakes. I realize that the winter I remember from childhood—frosty and white—is becoming less frequent. Snow in the city is becoming a fleeting, almost ephemeral phenomenon."
#5. Aerial – 2nd Place: In Between Forces by Leszek Paradowski
"This series explores the relationship between the human body and the invisible forces shaping natural structures. On frozen lakes, organic patterns emerge as a result of shifting temperatures, tension, and time. The human figure is introduced not as a subject, but as a measure of scale and presence. Placed within these vast, fragile systems, it reveals a dialogue between control and surrender, order and randomness. The work focuses on the space “in between” — where human perception encounters processes beyond its influence."
#6. Aerial – 3rd Place: The Long Shadow by Christopher Harrison
"On the first day of meteorological spring, low mist blanketed the landscape. As the sun rose, it cast a long shadow behind this small group of trees atop this bronze age barrow."
#7. Architecture – 1st Place: Wall House by Frank Loddenkemper
"Wall House in Groningen was designed by American architect John Hejduk. Although the design dates back to 1973, the building was not completed until 2001, posthumously. It is the only one of a series of 24 designs that Hejduk conceived for his “Wall House” series to have been built anywhere in the world. Today, this unique architectural gem is operated by the Groninger Museum as a public space for art and architecture. Adjusting the sky, removing the background Adjusting colour, brightness and contrast Cropping the photo"
#8. Architecture – 2nd Place: Curves in Colour by Louis Philippe Provost
"This series features the Walt Disney Concert Hall’s striking facade with it’s stainless steel panels and adventurous curvature. I decided to add the beautiful California sky in different colors throughout the images to emphasize the relationship of the building to it’s environment."
#9. Architecture – 3rd Place: Guggenheim Museum by Martin Santbergen
"Black and white study of the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain."
#10. Conceptual – 1st Place: Prism of Perception by Vlada de Nooij
"The project explores how transformation of a recognisable image gradually shifts our perception through light, shadow and the geometry of line, revealing how unstable and subjective perception can be—shaped by experience, emotion, and perspective. As the recognizable portrait gradually transforms, personal perception begins to shape its meaning. What remains is an image continuously produced through the viewer’s act of seeing."
#11. Conceptual – 2nd Place: Our Blues by Hardi Budi
"Share what you feel with a close friend is the most healing experiences. A true friend will listen with compassion, offer a shoulder to cry on, and provide a safe space for you to open up and express your emotions. Remember, it’s okay to not be okay and reaching out for support is a sign of strength."
#12. Conceptual – 3rd Place: Groundshapes by Monique van Laake
"GroundShapes is an ongoing series of diptychs by Teun Anders and Monique van Laake. Each pair sets a found landscape against a sculpted head, so that ground and face mirror each other in texture and tone. Two images meant to be read as one."
#13. Fine Art – 1st Place: Controlled Silence by Steffen Reichardt
"“Controlled silence” explores the quiet tension between human presence and industrial control. Monumental cooling towers dominate the landscape, while a small chapel introduce a fragile human reference point. Through reduction, shadow, and scale, the series transforms a real place into a psychological space by stillness, mass and restraint. The images move from overview toward increasing reduction, where structure slowly dissolves into pure relationships of form, silence and presence."
#14. Fine Art – 2nd Place: Aligned Forms by Sonia Aumiller
"The protagonists of the Venetian lagoon—briccole, wooden piles emerging from the water, guiding boats and structuring the space. Long-exposure photography emphasizes reduced forms, subtle tonal transitions, and the stillness of the scene."
#15. Fine Art – 3rd Place: Pastel Sentinels by Michael Jurek
"This series explores the iconic lifeguard stands of Miami Beach as sculptural objects suspended between architecture, color field, and memory. Isolated against pale sand and open sky, the structures become minimalist compositions of geometry and saturated pastel tones, evoking both nostalgia and surrealism."
#16. Landscape – 1st Place: Tuscan Cypresses by Gianfranco Bove
"Tuscany – Val D’Orcia. The cypress, the symbol of Val D’Orcia. In groups, isolated, in rows with their elegant silhouette make the landscape unique. The cypresses represent immortality and under their branches time seems to have no end."
#17. Landscape – 2nd Place: The Quiet Desert by Andrew Mielzynski
"The Mesquite Dunes in Death Valley, California, offer extraordinary photographic opportunities. I was fortunate to spend time there at the end of January 2026. The ever-shifting sands and the interplay of light and shadow create simple, minimalistic and highly graphic compositions. Over the course of several days, I assembled a series of images that reflect the sense of calm, solitude, and peace that I experienced while wandering alone through this tranquil landscape."
#18. Landscape – 3rd Place: Between shadows by Andrea Rosin
"A minimalist black-and-white landscape captured during a journey through the Peruvian Andes. A delicate crescent moon hangs above Mount Salkantay, mirroring in its glow the bright, snow-covered massive ridge of the mountain, which emerges from the shadows between the dark silhouettes of the foreground peaks. The contrast between light and darkness evoked in me a feeling of stillness, timeless grandeur, and humility."
#19. Long Exposure – 1st Place: Highway to nothing by Tadej Cerkvenik
"The photograph was captured in January 2026 in Slovenia."
#20. Long Exposure – 2nd Place: Pfahlwerk by Rainer Lüdecke
"Pfahlwerk is a series of minimalist black-and-white photographs of piles and small structures in water. Long exposures render the surface soft and still—leaving only a few forms, ample negative space, and a sense of time and transience."
#21. Long Exposure – 3rd Place: Forgotten Venice by Alessandro Tagliapietra
"The forgotten Venice is made up of small islands that were once inhabited but are now abandoned. The oldest traces found among these islands tell of populations that lived in these places since the 1st century (Roman Empire). Over the centuries, some became monasteries, which were later abandoned. Others ended up as defence posts for the Republic of Venice to defend itself from attacks by the Republic of Genoa in the 13th century, then used until the First World War. All images were taken with long exposures on foggy days."
#22. Night Photography – 1st Place: The magic of the night sky over Atacama by Mihail Minkov
"As a landscape astrophotographer, connecting the Earth with the divine — the stars — is a mission that makes the invisible visible through colors and shapes. It had long been my dream to visit some of the darkest skies in the world, above the Atacama Desert in South America, the Uyuni Salt Flats in Bolivia, and the magical Easter Island. This is a series of several single-frame images that capture the magic of the night sky from the Southern Hemisphere."
#23. Night Photography – 2nd Place: In the Rain by Rolandas Urbonavicius
"The beautiful Étretat coast in France. A sudden heavy rain and a lone fishing boat sailing along the coast – all that was needed for this minimalist work."
#24. Night Photography – 3rd Place: Sentinel of the Void by Peter Orton
"In the depths of a Suffolk marsh at night, a single ancient dead tree stands as a solitary sentinel against an infinite black sky. Using dramatic low-angle lighting, I carved rich golden highlights across its gnarled, twisted form, transforming decay into sculptural presence. The vast negative space and minimal palette strip the scene to its essential elements: light meeting wood, form emerging from darkness."
#25. Open Category – 1st Place: Guggug / Peek-a-boo by Iris Dahan
"Winter 2012, Aurach near Kitzbühel. In a quiet, snow-covered landscape, a subtle movement behind a ridge caught my attention. I waited, camera ready, capturing brief, almost accidental glimpses—until a stag lifted his head and met my gaze for an instant before disappearing again. A fleeting encounter of presence and absence, leaving the question: who was observing whom?"
#26. Open Category – 2nd Place: Dreaming to fly by Ewa Przeździecka
"Although it’s hard to believe, this really did happen. I spend a week in Antarctica living in a tent camp near the emperor penguin colony. The adult birds often accompanied us whenever we stepped outside our tents. That’s why, when I set out to photograph the plane that brought us to the camp, I expected the penguins to follow me. Positioned squarely before the plane, I observed one of the penguins wadding toward it, stopping in the perfect spot beneath the wing.T he scene surpassed any vision I might have imagined."
#27. Open Category – 3rd Place: Lines and shadow by Łukasz Jaracz
#28. Photomanipulation – 1st Place: Early Warning by Shirin Town
"A sense of danger – the feeling of being exposed. The figure closes their eyes to heighten other senses. The canary is a reference to the classic trope of a coal miners early warning system of a dangerous and toxic environment."
#29. Photomanipulation – 2nd Place: For all mankind by Katerina Belkina
"I dream about space, about planets and universes. It is always about the future, about romance and excitement for me. Yet, at the same time, I am also rooted in the here and now and think about my home – planet Earth. What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with the human beings on this Earth?"
#30. Photomanipulation – 3rd Place: Instruments by Juergen Potocnik
"This series explores scientific infrastructure beyond its functional purpose. Through the deliberate reduction of spatial context, form, materiality and construction come to the foreground. The structures appear as autonomous objects. Their original function remains unresolved and becomes a question for the viewer."
#31. Portrait – 1st Place: El ultimo Vaquero en la Tierra by Wiktor Franko
"The photograph was taken on El Cotillo street in Fuerteventura. It has a minimalist character, with its strength rooted in the simplicity of the composition. The juxtaposition of clear, bold color planes and geometric forms evokes the work of Piet Mondrian, particularly his iconic paintings with colorful squares and a sense of balanced harmony between form and color."
#32. Portrait – 2nd Place: A Quiet Breath by Grit Brune
"The image has the effect of a calm breath. Movement exits as form rather than narrative. Order, trust, and stillness coexist without pointing toward meaning or resolution."
#33. Portrait – 3rd Place: A Small Measure of Peace by Giandomenico Veneziani
"The heart of Hell is not fire, but ice. Cold as hatred, dehumanization and relational death. The body is enveloped by the cold waters of the Cocytus and at that moment all desire is extinguished and man can only contemplate his failure. Cryogenized in this immense river, which separates the world of the living from that of the dead, the human being becomes stone, soulless, insignificant, mute and inert."
#34. Street – 1st Place: On the Lookout by Marco Wilm
"This photo was taken in Hamm, June 2025. I caught this decisive moment of teenagers on the platform."
#35. Street – 2nd Place: The Void by Nina Papiorek
"A small person, the right moment, the seclusion of the scene, and a clear visual language through minimalism and contrast, are what make a street shot a well-thought-out photograph that captivates the viewer for me."
#36. Street – 3rd Place: Olympic stadium by Samuel Ioannidis
"Athens 2025. Ive always been fascinated with the 2004 olympic games and wanted a good shot for my archive."
Frequently Asked Questions:
What is the year 2026’s Minimalist Photography Awards?
The 2026 Minimalist Photography Awards honor photographers for their ability to produce striking images using simplicity, space, light, silence, and thoughtful composition. The competition gathers photographers from all over the world and demonstrates how minimalism can turn ordinary subjects into powerful visual narratives with a lasting emotional effect.
Who was the winner of the Minimalist Photographer of the Year in 2026?
In 2026, Marcin Giba from Poland was awarded the title of Minimalist Photographer of the Year for his series The Last Winter; his photographs were noted for their quiet atmosphere, restrained compositions, and ability to find beauty in sparse winter landscapes and minimal visual elements.
What number of categories are there in the 2026 awards?
The 2026 competition has 13 categories that cover a wide range of approaches to minimalist photography. These include Abstract, Aerial Photography, Architecture, Conceptual, Fine Art, Landscape, Long Exposure, Night Photography, Open, Photomanipulation, Portrait, and Street, giving photographers a variety of creative options.
What does the overall winner get?
The winner receives a cash prize of €2,000, a handcrafted trophy, and the title of Minimalist Photographer of the Year. In addition, all winning photographers gain valuable international exposure, since some of their work is published in the official Annual Book and shown in a gallery exhibition.
What makes minimalist photography so powerful?
Minimalist photography eliminates distractions and directs attention to basic elements such as shape, space, light, color, and the subject. Because the composition is simplified, photographers can create stronger moods, tell clearer stories, and make images that leave plenty of room for viewers to interpret.
