Natural Landscape Photography Awards Winners

The winners of the Natural Landscape Photography Awards have been announced

In its second year, the competition was created to promote the very best in landscape photography, covering digital and film. Valuing realism and authenticity, it established important rules to avoid ‘deceptive’ digital editing techniques now commonplace in the world landscape photography.

10,700 images were submitted from across 55 countries by 1,179 photographers. Three distinctive categories were established, including Grand Scenic, Intimate Landscapes and Abstract and Details. A unique ‘Project’ section was created for photographers to submit 6-10 images that relate to one another in some way.

Eight leaders and world-class photographers judged the competition through a transparent and fair process.

Overall winner

Brent Clarke, USA

Brent Clark won the overall Natural Landscape Photography Awards for 2022 and went home with his share of $38,750 in prizes, including cash, Canon cameras and printers, F-Stop Gear, FLM Tripods, and subscriptions to Nature Photographer’s Network.

“I am honored and stunned to receive the distinction of the Natural Landscape Photography Award’s Natural Landscape Photographer of the Year!

Last year’s NLPA was the first photography competition I had ever entered, because most competitions seem to reward a style of image I prefer not to create and a mindset I do not have. What caught my attention with the NLPA was its esteemed judges and core values, rather than the prizes and recognition that come with winning. I felt like entering was to cast a vote for what I wanted to see more of in the landscape photography community – natural and inspirational imagery, grounded in reality.“

Runner-up Photographer of the Year

Antonio Fernandez, Spain

“Nature continually shows us abstractions and realities that seem magical. They seem difficult to see but they are there. They are whimsical forms and patterns, attractive harmonies, and natural structures that we only manage to observe when we extract the essence of the whole or take a different view of the natural environment.

It is a great satisfaction for me that my photographs have been awarded this prize. It is a wonderful recognition of my effort to try to share those memorable moments when nature invites us to be mere spectators of its beauty.”

Photograph of the Year

Jim Lamont and Philipp Jakesch won the joint-first prize for ‘Photograph of the Year’.

Jim Lamont, Canada, A shadow falls on the Lowell Glacier, 2022

The photograph shows the shadow cast by some peaks on the surface of the Lowell Glacier, in Kluane National Park, Yukon Territory, Canada. It was taken on a July morning in 2022 from a Cessna 172 as part of a decades-long project on glaciers. With climate change the Lowell Glacier, like most glaciers in the world, is crumbling into ruin, its surface gradually disappearing beneath dirt and rubble as the ice melts. The image is intended to suggest the wave of destruction that will overwhelm us unless we stop dumping carbon into the atmosphere.

Runner-up Photographer of the Year

Antonio Fernandez, Spain

“Nature continually shows us abstractions and realities that seem magical. They seem difficult to see but they are there. They are whimsical forms and patterns, attractive harmonies, and natural structures that we only manage to observe when we extract the essence of the whole or take a different view of the natural environment.

It is a great satisfaction for me that my photographs have been awarded this prize. It is a wonderful recognition of my effort to try to share those memorable moments when nature invites us to be mere spectators of its beauty.”

Philipp Jakesch, US, Ardor

“When I decided to visit the volcanic site on the Reykjanes Peninsula, I was uncertain how it would be and how dangerous it was. Luckily we had good conditions and good filters to protect our lungs. The Image called “Ardor” is one of my favourite images from the volcanic series because of the small fragment of this huge area. The blue hour threw ambient blue light on the background layers, with the orange lava standing out even more. The 1,100°C hot liquid earth is frozen in time. Even though my distance to the erupting volcano was about 500 Meters, I could feel the radiating heat with every outbreak.”

Project of the Year

Daniel Mirlea, Romania, Forestis

“One of the beauties of Romania is the virgin forests spread in the Carpathian Mountains. It represents one of the country’s natural treasuries, and even though some are parts of different natural parks, they are still endangered.”

Project of the Year

Daniel Mirlea, Romania, Forestis

“One of the beauties of Romania is the virgin forests spread in the Carpathian Mountains. It represents one of the country’s natural treasuries, and even though some are parts of different natural parks, they are still endangered.”