The Epson Pano Awards 2022

The winners of the Epson Pano Awards have been announced and the results include a geological wonder, the purple one, and a rainbow canyon

Bought to us by Epson, the Pano Awards seeks to unite the best photographers from the panoramic world. This year, 4,129 entries from 1,197 photographers in 98 countries competed to take home the prize money (thousands of dollars!) and a selection of Epson goodies, including printers and projectors.

The awe-inspiring collection sees a range of approaches taken to produce images that could have been taken straight from an alien planet or an abstract painting. The Pano Awards features cateories ranging from the Open and Amateur Awards to the 360/VR and Raw Planet Awards. The competition champions creativity in the world of photography, making for the most interesting, and unpredictable compositions.

Jinyi He from China won first prize in the Open Category with three entries, ‘The Vein’, ‘Purple World’ and ‘Rainbow Canyon’.

Jinyi said, “I’m deeply honoured to receive 2022 Epson Pano Award as Open Photographer of the Year. It is very special for me to get recognised for the works shot in my childhood hometown Xinjiang, China. As a landscape photographer, I’m always passionate about exploring majestic Chinese landscapes rarely known to western photographers. I dedicate myself to capturing their precious but hidden beauty. I believe the most powerful photos come from one’s heart instead of one’s brain. Heartfelt feelings on the road always bring me different inspirations, perspectives, and appreciations of our planet.”

In describing ‘The Vein’, Jinyi said, “I traveled to Xinjiang last year and took this photo in Dushanzi Grand Canyon, a geological wonder. For tens of millions of years, the melting snow water of Tianshan Glacier has torn open the chest of the vast Gobi like a Hummer, and formed this natural landscape under the movement of the earth’s crust and the erosion of wind and rain. ‘The Vein’ is stitched by 40 photos. I operated my drone to capture these 90 degrees aerial view photos at 40 appropriate points (5 rows and 8 columns) of the canyon in order to get whole canyon aerial view. Nature is an artist, and it reminds me of an abstract painting.”

The winner of the Amateur Category was Florian Kriechbaumer of the UAE with his entries, ‘In Formation’, ‘The Confrontation’ and ‘Sunrise in the Clouds’.

Kriechbaumer said, “I’m a passionate photographer and traveller originally from Germany, but have spent most of the last 15 years living in Dubai, where I have been working for various technology companies. The country is an amazing playground for photography, which gave me the opportunity to slowly broaden my skillset over the years. I try not to limit myself to one discipline, but experiment in many areas across cityscape, landscape, wildlife, drone, timelapse, timeblend, astro, and everything in between. That probably means I’m not an expert in anything, but sometimes the magic happens at the intersection of domains and technologies, and that’s where I strive to be. This is my third year taking part in the Epson Panorama Awards, and I’m very grateful the jury found my submissions appealing – the quality of the contest has been so high over the years that it still feels a bit surreal to be a part of the winning images.”

The Epson Digital Art Prize was won by Juan Lopez Ruis from Spain, who said about his winning ‘Poison River’ entry, “This is an aerial view of the surroundings of the Riotinto mine, Huelva, Spain. This is a reservoir close to the mine where all the mine waste accumulates, it is an area of polymetallic massive sulphide concentration where copper, lead and zinc are extracted, as well as gold and silver, which contributes to a great variety of textures and colours in constant change, this makes it a unique place perfect for aerial photography.”

The Curator’s Award went to Judith Kuhn from Germany for her entry ‘Bernese Oberland’. Judith said, “Alps in the Bernese Oberland. It is known among wildlife photographers for its ibex. A larger colony lives there, which has gotten used to the numerous walkers and shows little shyness. So, I followed the call of the ibex to the Niederhorn. The landscape of the area is also not uninteresting (the triumvirate Mönch Eiger Jungfrau is directly opposite), but not a photographic hotspot. Therefore, for weight reasons, I set out early in the morning for my photo tour armed only with a camera, telephoto lens and a few spare batteries. Landscape photography was not planned. At the Burgfeldstand, a neighbouring summit, the view opened up to the north-east, hills and valleys staggered in the light haze in the backlight of the rising sun. A perspective that creates spatial depth and, fortunately for me, could only be effectively photographed with a telephoto lens. I unexpectedly came across a wonderful landscape photo on my wildlife tour.”

See some of our other favourite entries below.

For the full collection of images, head to the Epson Pano Awards website.