For the past 21 years, amateur and professional photographers from around the world have been capturing nature’s beauty as part of the annual International Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) awards.
This year’s competition involved photographers from 150 countries and more than 20,000 images, which were submitted and reviewed by judges. The winning photos will be displayed at The Photography & Video Show in Birmingham.
Judges chose Slovenian photographer AndreJa Ravnak, an architect by trade, as the overall winner for her work which captures dream-like European landscapes.
“In early spring, the soil is still too cold for growth. An interesting pattern occurred while a new orchard was planted on the slope of the hill, making the scene very abstract,” stated Ravnak.
Among the other winners was Athanasios Maloukos in the “People and Cultures” category for his photos of shamans performing rituals to connect with spirits in Siberia. Martin Broen won in the “Nature, Wildlife & Conservation” for his photo series of the Mobula Ray migration in Mexico.
Young Travel Photographer of the Year award was awarded to 14-year-old Caden Shepard Choi for a series of black and white photos showing the Navajo people of Chinle, Arizona herding sheep, shearing them, and weaving with the wool.
“The women dived for hours. I followed them with my lens as they disappeared and reappeared from the sea, the only constant was their orange buoys. I took this image of a Haenyeo just as she plunged back into the ocean with perfect form, as if it were her first dive of the morning. Yellow flippers in the air and a small splash create the foreground. The sea appears so unperturbed around the Haenyeo. In the distance, waves crash over strips of volcanic rock. A light fog rolls in, veiling parts of a small island in the background. The clouds loom mysteriously overhead.” stated Caden Shepard Choi.
Lilly Zhang won in the 15–18-year-old category with images of wildlife drawn to a Pennsylvania lake in the morning light.
“Gold mist is suspended on the still lake surface, and amid this dreamy scene is the coexistence of a fisherman and a duck. Seeing this unlikely duo at Marsh Creek State Park, I knew that I had to capture the scene in a photo,” stated Lilly.
All the winning photos can be viewed online, or at an exhibition held at the NEC in Birmingham, UK from March 16-19 and at Xposure in Sharjah, UAE.
