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The International Photography Awards highlight pro and amateur photographers alike
DPReview NewsInternational Photography Awards 2025 Category Winners
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The 2025 International Photography Awards (IPA) has announced the winners of its Category Awards. The annual competition is open to professionals and non-professionals across the globe. There are 11 categories, including advertising, analog, architecture, book, editorial, event, fine art and more.
A panel of judges comprised of gallerists, photo editors, directors, art collectors and other photography luminaries selected this year's category winners. Each category winner receives a cash prize, travel support and international exposure through exhibitions, screenings and publication. Two grand prize winners, the International Photographer of the Year (Professional) and Discovery of the Year (Non-Professional), will be announced at the IPA gallery on October 5 at the Benaki Museum in Athens.
Most of the winners below submitted multiple images as part of a series. You can see the full bodies of work and learn more about the contest at the IPA website.
Architecture Photographer of the Year (Professional)
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Photographer: Romain Thiery
Title: Requiem pour Pianos
Technical info: 1/6 sec, F9.0, ISO 320; Fujifilm GFX100S with GF 23mm F4 R LM WR lens
Details: Romain Thiery (Bergerac,1988), is a photographic artist and amateur pianist. Romain has combined these two arts in his Requiem pour Pianos series, which explores abandoned pianos around the world. For him, the piano is "deeply rooted in the depths of our culture" and never ceases to retain its nobility. Since 2014, he has discovered more than a hundred abandoned pianos, leaving the place as it is. The Requiem pour Pianos series has become the core of his artistic work, symbolizing both decadence and resilience and transforming pianos into silent witnesses to their era.
Book Photographer of the Year (Professional)
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Photographer: Autori Multipli
Company/Studio: Percorso Perbellini
Title: Fragili Equilibri
Details: Our photography project chronicles the particularities of a country through the everyday experiences of ordinary people, often ignored and seen as “the last ones.” For us, they are authentic and fundamental voices, symbols of resilience and hope. The images reveal faces, smiles and intense expressions, showing their humanity and their crucial role for a more just and inclusive future.
Editorial / Press Photographer of the Year (Professional)
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Photographer: Abdelrahman Alkahlout
Title: Echoes of Genocide: Gaza’s Civilian Suffering
Technical info: 1/80 sec, F2.8, ISO 2500; Canon EOS 5D Mark IV with EF 16-35mm F2.8L III USM lens
Details: Since October 2023, Gaza has become a bloody scene of genocide: brutal airstrikes tearing apart peaceful neighborhoods; children’s bodies pulled from rubble into overcrowded hospitals overwhelmed by agony. Heartbreaking scenes of mothers losing their children instantly, families displaced by relentless bombings into hunger and fragile tents. Mosques reduced to rubble, yet worshippers uphold their faith amid destruction. Homes emptied of life, childhoods stolen—children deprived of limbs but not hope, their eyes defiantly resilient, challenging the world.
Event Photographer of the Year (Professional)
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Photographer: Savadmon Avalachamveettil
Title: MahaKumbh - World's Largest Gathering
Technical info: 1/200 sec, F2.8, ISO 100
Details: A once-in-144 years phenomenon. Ash-smeared Hindu holy men (Naga Sadhus) charged into India's most sacred river Ganges at dawn on the first most significant bathing day of the Kumbh Mela festival. An extraordinary display of human unity, spiritual energy, and collective consciousness.
Fine Art Photographer of the Year (Professional)
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Photographer: Julia Fullerton-Batten
Title: Frida - A Singular Vision of Beauty & Pain
Technical info: 1/160 sec, F13, ISO 200; Hasselblad H6D-100c with HCD 35-90mm F4 lens
Details: I came to Mexico City in 2022 and fell in love with everything Mexican. The people, colours, and the rhythm of life; and so much of what I fell in love with came from Frida Kahlo, her influence is everywhere, she seems to pulse through the veins of Mexico. Frida Kahlo's art transcends the confines of the canvas and becomes a testament to female unity & empowerment. By embracing her own vulnerabilities and sharing her painful human experience with unabashed honesty, she shattered the boundaries of what art could be and became an icon of hope and inspiration for generations of women artists.
Nature Photographer of the Year (Professional)
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Photographer: Sho Otani
Title: The Beautiful of Floating Babies
Technical info: 1/160 sec, F22, ISO 64; NIkon Z9 with Nikkor Z MC 50mm F2.8 lens
Details: This portfolio consists of beautiful sea babies about 5mm~10cm. Many of the underwater creatures have glass-like bodies, bright colors, and mysterious shapes that are only found when they are babies. Because they float in the ocean, they can be photographed from a variety of angles. Floating in the background of the sea at night, they are as beautiful as stardust floating in space. In the cover photo, the reflection of the subject on the surface of the water makes it look as if there are two of these beautiful deep-sea fish. I hope many people will see this beautiful underwater story.
People Photographer of the Year (Professional)
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Photographer: Natasha Pszenicki
Title: Family In Vitro
Technical info: 1/200 sec, F13, ISO 400; Nikon D850 with AF-S Micro Nikkor 60mm F2.8G ED lens
Details: Historical boundaries have often dictated belonging. Jade & Grace’s story offers a quiet subversion, presenting family as a boundless, evolving art form. As a queer interracial married couple, they reclaim spaces shaped by exclusion and assert their right to be seen and celebrated as women with equal rights to parenthood. Each portrait in this series not only reimagines the traditional family tableau but also evokes a sense of timelessness. Through this lens, Jade & Grace illuminate the transformative power of love, inviting viewers to reflect on their own definitions of family & embrace a broader vision.
Special Photographer of the Year (Professional)
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Photographer: Pedro Luis Ajuriaguerra Saiz
Title: Damselfies from Another Planet
Technical info: Sony a7R V
Details: There are worlds we don't see, not because they're far away, but because they're too small. Damselflies From Another Planet is an invitation to immerse ourselves in that hidden universe, where insects—silent inhabitants of our environment—reveal themselves as creatures of a beauty as disturbing as it is fascinating. Through extreme macro photography, this series transforms the everyday into the extraordinary. Each faceted eye, each antenna, each tiny hair is exalted until it becomes a work of art in itself. The objective isn't scientific, it's aesthetic. It's not about classifying.
Sports Photographer of the Year (Professional)
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Photographer: Todd Antony
Title: Buzkashi
Technical info: 1/1250 sec, F8.0, ISO 100; Phase One IQ3 100MP with Schneider Kreuznach 55mm LS F2.8 lens
Details: Buzkashi, meaning “goat pulling” in Persian, is the wild sport of Tajikistan and its neighboring ‘Stans.’ Think polo - but with a headless, eviscerated goat instead of a ball, hundreds of riders, and no formal teams. Rooted in the nomadic cultures of Central Asia and played for hundreds of years, riders battle for control of the goat while dodging rivals (and the occasional whip or elbow) in scenes reminiscent of a Napoleonic battle painting. The rule book is a mere couple of sentences, with the match often overflowing into the fleeing crowd. Games can last for hours.
Advertising Photographer of the Year (Professional)
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Photographer: Jonathan Knowles
Title: Colour Has A New Chapter
Technical info: 3 sec, ISO 64; Hasselblad H6D-100c
Details: We were commissioned to shoot a series of images for the covers of a curated collection of classic novels produced by paint company Dulux Heritage. Each was painted using the Heritage hue that it evokes to deliver the campaign line: Let the feelings of your favourite books become the colours of your favourite rooms. The images are intended as transient paint patterns that may emerge during the decorating process, each characterising the book on which it features.
Analog / Film Photographer of the Year (Professional)
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Photographer: Piotr Zbierski
Title: Solid Maze of All That's Left Untold
Technical info: Mixed: Black and white negative and polaroids
Details: Based on an intuitive, surreal narration the photographic series of Piotr Zbierski are constantly asking questions on relationships between nature and culture as well as between memory and narration. What happens between experience and the act of telling a story about it? Where does memory end and diary begins? His photography also connects the material reality with the wider spiritual understanding of the world. The works, very poetic and full of pure emotions,the depths of the human soul and the mysteries of life and death. Time feels like a place a house in constant renovation and expension.
Advertising Photographer of the Year (Non-Professional)
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Photographer: Natalie Vorontsoff
Title: Porcelain Petals
Details: "Porcelain Petals" explores the resilience of the human spirit through the art of mending. Inspired by the Chinese and Japanese technique of repairing broken porcelain with gold, this fine art photography series captures the beauty in imperfection, symbolizing strength, healing, and grace. Each image weaves delicate fragility with luminous resilience, transforming past wounds into gilded scars of wisdom. This project is a visual meditation on pain, renewal, and the quiet power of embracing one’s history with compassion.
Analog / Film Photographer of the Year (Non-Professional)
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Photographer: Yehor Lemzyakoff
Title: Misplaced Childhood
Technical info: Large format photography; Sinar P2 (8X10" format); Kodak TXP 320, Ilford HP5, FP4
Details: "Misplaced Childhood" explores the theme of early maturity among children growing up in rural Poland. This documentary series captures the moments where innocence intertwines with responsibility, freedom with constraints, and childhood with the inevitability of growing up too soon. Through a series of black-and-white portraits, the project reflects on the lived realities of children who, while still engaged in play, are already confronting the structures of adulthood—be it through the responsibilities imposed by their environment, economic circumstances, or cultural expectations.
Architecture Photographer of the Year (Non-Professional)
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Photographer: Mohammad Awadh
Title: Icon of Architectural
Technical info: 1/200 sec, F10, ISO 100; Sony a1 with FE 12-24mm F2.8 GM lens
Details: Heydar Alive Center in Baku in Azerbaijan one of the unique and beautiful building in the world.
Book Photographer of the Year (Non-Professional)
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Photographer: Markus Naarttijarvi
Title: A Surrender
Details: The haunting stillness of Swedish winter serves as the inspiration and backdrop for Markus Naarttijärvi’s debut monograph A Surrender. Shot over 1,000 consecutive days, Naarttijärvi navigates spaces stuck in a liminal twilight — somewhere between death and rebirth, where human industry dissolves into nature’s embrace. Each photograph is a step in a journey of appreciation between growth and decay, society and wilderness, resistance and surrender. With patience and persistence, Naarttijärvi transforms collapse and new growth into a meditation on impermanence.
Editorial / Press Photographer of the Year (Non-Professional)
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Photographer: Sebastian Piorek
Title: The overflowing earth
Details: I have documented Poland’s expanding landfills, capturing images that reveal waste piling up at an alarming rate. These views expose the unsettling reality of a world consumed by trash. What once seemed like isolated dumps now spread endlessly, forming landscapes where refuse dominates. The abstract beauty of patterns contrasts with the grim truth they hold. As the project progresses, the images become increasingly claustrophobic, mirroring a future where nothing remains but waste. This series is a call to rethink consumption and sustainability before our world is buried under its own excess.
Event Photographer of the Year (Non-Professional)
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Photographer: Yu Ling Ho
Title: South Island Group Wedding
Technical info: 1/400 sec, F8 , ISO 200; Nikon D5 with 70-200mm F2.8 lens
Details: This photo series documents the vibrant and deeply meaningful aboriginal collective wedding held annually in Pingtung. From the formal engagement and betrothal gift ceremonies to the final wedding day, every step is rich with ancestral customs passed down through generations. The couples are dressed in stunning traditional attire, each design reflecting tribal identity, family heritage, and cultural pride. Elders bless the unions, families gather in celebration, and the air is filled with music, dance, and heartfelt joy.
Fine Art Photographer of the Year (Non-Professional)
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Photographer: Marie Sueur
Title: Murmures de l'âme
Technical info: 1/15 sec, F11, ISO 800; Canon EOS 5D Mark II with EF 50mm F1.4 USM lens
Details: In a world that monitors, analyzes, and controls everything, I am drawn to the shadows, to those pockets of mystery that even the most advanced technologies have yet to colonize. Among these untamed territories lies the unconscious: a vast continent of ambiguity and vertigo, whispering its truths through the language of symbols and dreams. I set out to explore this mental space where reason gives way to instinct. A realm where words falter and images take over. An invitation, not to understand, but to feel. A descent into what we are, in the most secret part of ourselves.
Nature Photographer of the Year (Non-Professional)
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Photographer: Ilene Meyers
Title: Iowa Storm Cell
Technical info: 1/15 sec, F10, ISO 80; OM Digital Solutions OM-1 with Olympus M.7-14mm F2.8 lens
Details: This was a wild and crazy day searching for just such a storm cell. Quite the adventure!
People Photographer of the Year (Non-Professional)
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Photographer: Ilona Schong
Title: Inside Romania
Technical info: 1/160 sec, F2.8 ISO 800; Nikon Z8 with Nikkor Z 24-70mm F2.8 lens
Details: This series contains images of life in the still traditional, authentic Romanian homes where I was so warmly welcomed by each of the residents during my travels through Romania. The encounter behind each photograph is still vivid in my mind, and I often left moved and overwhelmed with prayers for myself and my family. It was a truly emotional journey for me and a life worth documenting, because it will soon disappear.
Special Photographer of the Year (Non-Professional)
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Photographer: Monia Marchionni
Title: Emotive Snapshots
Technical info: 1/1250 sec, F2.0, ISO 32; Samsung Galaxy A51
Details: Italy, Summer 2023 "Emotive snapshots" is a body of work born suddenly on an early summer day, while I was observing my daughter relating to the sea and the bathers. All summer I captured moments of "magical realism" with my smartphone because I felt particularly inspired, transforming every day into a little fantastic story with soft colors and a retro atmosphere. Poetic visions that show how summer is not just a season but a feeling.
Sports Photographer of the Year (Non-Professional)
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Photographer: Kohei Kawashima
Title: Piercing the Rainbow
Technical info: 1/4 sec, F9.0, ISO 200; Canon EOS R1 with RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1 L IS USM lens
Details: This image was captured at the first hairpin of Tsukuba Circuit. As the rider accelerated through the corner, his silhouette cut sharply across a swirl of colors, like a comet streaking through a rainbow. I created this photograph in the spirit of "Suisei Nagashi", a technique that expresses not only motion, but the tension, energy, and fleeting beauty found within it. I hope this moment of speed and color speaks to the viewer as strongly as it did to me.
