The Natural Landscape Photography Awards (NLPA) has officially announced the winners of its sixth annual competition, showcasing an extraordinary collection of nature and landscape imagery that champions uncompromising realism, digital integrity, and authentic field craft.
In a modern photography landscape heavily influenced by compositing tools and artificial intelligence, the NLPA stands apart by enforcing a set of relatively rigid rules designed to protect the truth of the natural world. The competition’s guiding principle remains steadfast: the integrity of the subject must be maintained at all costs. According to the organization, any viewer who is familiar with a specific landscape and the photographic process should never feel deceived when comparing a winning frame to the original scene and its corresponding RAW file.
To uphold this philosophy, the competition prohibits many common post-processing techniques and digital manipulations that are widely accepted in other international contests. For instance, introducing entirely new elements into a frame via digital compositing is strictly forbidden, as is the use of generative AI. Even traditional adjustments like localized dodging can disqualify an entry if judges determine it introduces the effect of light that simply was not present in the environment at the moment the shutter was released.
Despite these strict parameters, the competition still permits essential and standard post-processing methods, such as focus stacking and image stitching, to help photographers capture the dynamic range and depth of challenging outdoor environments. Furthermore, traditional film photography remains fully embraced and celebrated alongside digital submissions. To ensure compliance, every digital photograph that successfully navigates the initial stages of judging must be backed up by original RAW files for rigorous verification.
The sixth annual edition of the competition drew an impressive global response, pulling in 11,929 entries submitted by 1,086 photographers hailing from 52 different countries. Following a thorough evaluation process, exactly 2,558 individual photographs and 88 comprehensive projects successfully made it through the stringent RAW verification stage to reach final judging.
Photographer of the Year
Winner
The prestigious title of Natural Landscape Photography Awards Photographer of the Year for this sixth edition has been awarded to Lukas Furlan. His winning portfolio impressed the judging panel with a diverse and cohesive range of subjects and technical approaches, spanning from macro close-ups of delicate ice formations to expansive, sweeping vistas of rugged mountain ranges. What unites every image in Furlan’s winning series is an unwavering commitment to natural, realistic processing that respects the environmental conditions of the capture site.
Reflecting on his major victory, Furlan expressed a mix of disbelief and validation, noting the bittersweet symmetry of the moment. He shared that he feels deeply honored, describing the win as a surreal experience, particularly because he finished as the runner-up in the competition the previous year.
A significant portion of the portfolio that earned him the top honor was born out of a deeply personal, solo expedition undertaken in Spain during the prior year. The remainder of his winning images were captured closer to his current home around Vienna and, naturally, within the dramatic peaks of the Dolomites. Over recent years, Furlan has consciously sought to approach his craft with a more personal perspective, actively avoiding overly familiar tourist viewpoints while sharpening his eye for the smaller, intimate details hidden within the broader landscape.
Runner-Up
Securing the second-place position in the highly competitive Photographer of the Year category was photographer Kenny Muir, whose portfolio demonstrated exceptional technical skill and a profound appreciation for subtle, moody environmental conditions. His work stood out among thousands of entries for its quiet sophistication and strict adherence to the competition’s foundational ethos of realism.
Third Place
Rounding out the top three in the Photographer of the Year category was Vincenzo Mazza, whose meticulous framing and sensitive handling of natural light earned him third place. Mazza’s portfolio further highlighted the high caliber of technical precision and artistic vision required to succeed under the NLPA’s rigorous standards.
Photograph of the Year
In addition to evaluating multi-image portfolios for the Photographer of the Year distinction, the NLPA panel also honors an individual image with the title of Photograph of the Year. For the sixth annual competition, this singular accolade was awarded to Abraham Saikley for a remarkable, dramatic photograph of a jagged mountain range. Saikley’s winning frame captures golden sunlight brilliantly illuminating sharp, snow-dusted granite peaks as they stand in stark contrast against a dark and brooding sky, showcasing an extraordinary balance of light, texture, and natural atmosphere.
Projects Winner
The dedicated Projects category of the competition recognizes photographers who explore a specific theme or subject in depth across multiple frames. This year’s top honors in the category were awarded to Gabriel Stankiewicz for a compelling and introspective series centered entirely on pine forests.
Reflecting on the inspiration behind his award-winning project, Stankiewicz explained that growing up amidst the flat landscapes of Central Europe initially led him to view local pine forests as unphotogenic and entirely unremarkable. It was only after traveling extensively across the European continent to photograph more traditionally dramatic subjects like towering mountains and remote waterfalls that he began to notice a recurring, unifying theme in his travels: the resilient pine tree.
This realization prompted a profound artistic turnaround, making him acutely aware of the irony inherent in his creative journey. He had traveled vast distances away from the familiar only to train his lens on the very subject he had grown up beside. His winning series, captured across a diverse geographical spread including Norway, the Canary Islands, and Scotland, serves as a photographic love letter to pine trees across all phases of their lifecycle and within vastly contrasting habitats, ranging from verdant environments bursting with vitality to brutally harsh landscapes. In many instances, the trees featured in his frames stood watch long before the arrival of any human observer and will undoubtedly remain standing long after the final exposure has been made.
Projects — Runner-Up
The runner-up position in the Projects category was awarded to Kenny Muir, whose complementary series offered a deeply atmospheric exploration of frost-covered environments and sentinel trees, matching the high standards of thematic coherence expected by the judges.
Projects — Third Place
Taking third place in the Projects category was Vincenzo Mazza, whose sustained visual exploration of rugged, snow-drenched mountainsides under soft, golden light demonstrated a masterful ability to maintain narrative and visual consistency across an entire body of work.
Category Winners
Beyond the overarching portfolio and project prizes, the Natural Landscape Photography Awards features a dozen distinct categories designed for photographers submitting a single, powerful image. The competition highlights the top finishers across these specialized fields to showcase the breadth of talent operating within the realm of realistic nature photography.
In the Grand Landscape category, Xavier Lequarre claimed victory with a high-angle view capturing a pale, shallow lake surrounded by arid, brown hills beneath a dramatic canopy of clouds and distant snow-capped mountains. The Intimate Landscape category was won by Hiroyuki Tsuchiya, who utilized a thoughtful long-exposure technique to capture water flowing smoothly over a dark, submerged surface, creating mesmerizing, swirling white streaks.
For Abstract Landscape, Vincenzo Mazza earned the top spot with an arresting aerial view of a glacier surface marked by intricate, dark, swirling patterns of debris and deep ice crevasses. In the Black and White category, Lynn Fergusson triumphed with a high-angle study of a thick, light-gray liquid surface characterized by striking concentric circular patterns and a dark, irregular opening.
The specialized Platinum and Palladium printing category, which celebrates historic and alternative photographic processes, was won by Julian Baird with a dramatic image of mountaineers traversing a snow-covered ridge under towering, cloud-filled skies. Meanwhile, the Multiple Exposure and ICM (Intentional Camera Movement) category was led by Julian Lozinski, who captured a surreal, vertically mirrored landscape showcasing a sunset sky and silhouetted pine trees reflected perfectly in calm water.
In the Night category, Shane Turgeon secured first place with a breathtaking composition of a winding glacier flowing between dark, snow-capped mountain ranges under a vibrant night sky illuminated by the Milky Way. The Mountains category was won by Benjamin Maze, whose image featured sunlight streaming dramatically through broken clouds over a deep mountain valley, framed by large, layered rock formations in the foreground.
The Fungi and Lichens category recognized Jason Pettit for a detailed macro photograph of a cluster of small, glossy orange mushrooms thriving within the deep, weathered crevice of a dark, textured tree trunk. In Waterscapes, Annette Cuthbertson took top honors with a moody composition depicting a dark, stormy sky hanging heavily over a golden-brown hillside and a small cluster of bare trees beside a dark lake lined with reeds.
The Common Places category, which encourages photographers to find extraordinary beauty in ordinary or overlooked locations, was won by Matt Redfern with a horizontal composition of dry, golden-brown grass set against a dense thicket of bare winter trees. Finally, the Frozen Worlds category was led by Tom Putt, who captured a stunning aerial perspective of pancake ice floating across deep, dark blue waters.
With 170 exceptional images successfully reaching the final stages of the competition, the complete gallery of winners and finalists from the sixth annual Natural Landscape Photography Awards remains available for public viewing on the official organization website.
