2022 Travel Photographer of the Year competition
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The winners and finalists for the annual Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) awards have been announced. Nearly 20,000 images were entered by both professional and amateur photographers representing 154 countries. Slovenian photographer Matjaz Krivic won the title of Travel Photographer of the Year for his images of one of two of the very last Northern White rhinos on this planet.
The TPOTY awards also recognize up-and-coming talent as young photographers aged 18, and even under 14 years of age, are also commended for their efforts. All entries are ‘blindly’ judged by a panel consisting of professional photographers from around the globe.
Winning images will be on display from May 1st – 31st at an outdoor exhibition at the Royal Photographic Society in Bristol, England. Open to the public and free to view, it joins images from Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Food Photographer of the Year competitions. If you can’t make it out, winners and finalists from this year’s competition can be viewed on the TPOTY website.
Travel Photographer of the Year 2022: Matjaz Krivic (Slovenia)
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Location: Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Nanyuki, Kenya
Caption: Najin 33 one of the last two Northern White rhinos left in the world resting under a hot afternoon sun with her friend and caretaker Zachary Mutai in Ol Pejeta Conservancy.
The Northern white rhino is all but extinct. The two last males died several years ago. The two females are still with us, but too feeble to bear babies. In an Italian lab their eggs are now artificially fertilised by sperm from the late males, and kept at minus 196 celsius, in hopes that surrogate rhinos from another sub species can carry the northern white back from the brink.
Tech Specs: Canon 5D mk IV, 100mm 2.8 Canon L lens, F8, 1/1000s, ISO 100
Young Travel Photographer of the Year: Cal Cole, UK (age 18)
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Location: Manchester, UK
Caption: A Metrolink station during a winter storm. The cold tones combined with the spacing between each subject felt almost dystopian to me when I captured it.
Tech Specs: Nikon D3200, 18-135mm lens, F4, 1/80s, ISO 3200
Winner, Young TPOTY (15-18 yrs): Isabella Smith, USA (age 18)
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Location: Athens, Greece
Caption: One of the Evzones soldiers starts his shift in front of the Greek Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. For this particular image I wanted to capture the anonymity and uniformity that all Evzones hold.
Tech Specs: Canon EOS R6, 150-600mm lens, F5.6, 1/640s, ISO 100
Winner, Young TPOTY (14 yrs & under): Kaia Tham, Australia (age 14)
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Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Caption: The city sways in the patch of water, strewn carelessly on the ground by rainfall. Passerbys tread around the puddle, a low plastic bag blows into it. But there is beauty in the mundane; another world to be seen.
Tech Specs: iPhone 11, Wide Camera 26mm lens, F1.8, 1/539s, ISO 32
The Art of Monochrome, Portfolio – Winner: by Roie Galitz (Israel)
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Location: Kennedybukta, Svalbard, Norway
Caption: Not everything is great in the polar bear realm. This starving polar bear mother and her two young cubs hadn’t eaten anything in a long time, since the ice melted sooner than before. Due to the extreme starvation, the mother’s milk has dried out long ago and two days after this photo was taken,we heard reports that both cubs died. This image is a testimony of climate change’s impact.
Tech Specs: Nikon Z9, Nikon Z 70-200 lens, F3.5, 1/4000s, ISO 100
The Art of Monochrome, Best Single Image in a Portfolio – Runner-up: Dana Allen (USA)
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Location: Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe
Caption: An African elephant among the herd.
Tech Specs: Nikon D4, Nikon 28-300mm lens, F16, 1/500s, ISO 800
Cultures, Highly Commended: Li Yushan (China)
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Location: Inner Mongolia, China
Caption: Mongolian wedding customs are rich in content, grand and warm atmosphere, highlighting the Mongolian rugged and swarthy, brisk and passionate, culture-oriented, etiquette and other national characteristics, which are part of the intangible cultural heritage of China.
Tech Specs: Canon EOS 5D Mk III, 35mm lens, F8, 1/40s, ISO 250
Cultures, Best Single Image in a Portfolio – Winner: Athanasios Maloukos (Greece)
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Location: Canosa di Puglia, Italy
Caption: La Desolata, is one of the most poignant processions in the Christian world during Holy Week, in the village of Canosa di Puglia, Italy.
Tech Specs: Canon EOS 7D Mark II, 70-200mm lens, F8, 1/200s, ISO 200
Green Planet, Blue Planet, Best Single Image in a Portfolio – Winner: Panos Laskarakis (Greece)
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Location: Okavango Delta, Botswana
Caption: A large male lion peers through the remains of a buffalo killed the day before.
Tech Specs: Canon EOS 7D Mark II, 400mm lens, F5.6, 1/320s, ISO 640
Green Planet, Blue Planet – Special Mention: Scott Portelli (Australia)
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Location: Antarctica
Caption: Adelie penguin chicks find refuge in an intricate tunnel system calved into nearby icebergs. Using these passageways to avoid predators, they group together for safety. Leopard seals patrol the surrounding waters, while skuas survey the vulnerable chicks from above.
Tech Specs: Canon EOS-1D X Mark II, 100-400mm lens, F29, 1/200s, ISO 500
Deserts to Rainforests, Runner-up: Marek Biegalski (Poland)
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Location: Iceland
Caption: Glacial rivers become visible only when you are high up in the sky. They’re called ‘braided river systems, as they often resemble an intricate jumble of patterns, intertwining in an almost inexplicable fashion and colours.
Tech Specs: Hasslblad L1D-20c, 28mm lens, F2.8, 1/200s, ISO 100
Best Single Image in a Portfolio, Deserts to Rainforests – Winner: John Seager (UK)
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Location: Salar de Arizaro, Puna de Argentina, Argentina
Caption: ‘El Cono Arita’, a spectacular geological formation where erosion has shaped an almost perfect cone that seems to be lost in a vast desert of the Salar de Arizaro. Using a drone, I was able to capture the magnificent shadow of Arita on this beautiful, cloudless evening.
Tech Specs: DJI AIR2S, F2.8, 1/730s, ISO 110
Water, Highly Commended: Romain Miot (France)
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Location: Oualata, Mauritania
Caption: I met this salt caravan after a four-day expedition into the middle of the Sahara desert. No roads lead to this place, so we navigated by compass. Hundreds of dromedaries and their masters were present on this desert plain where nothing lives.
Two wells had been dug to water the camels before they left for Mali, Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso to sell the salt. When I returned from the trip I realised that this image of a camel owner ordering the dromedaries looked like a conductor with an orchestra.
Tech Specs: Sony A7 III, 24-70mm lens, F2.8, 1/3200s, ISO 125
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