The 2018 Travel Photographer of the Year (TPOTY) awards were won by Italian photographer Stefano Pensotti, whose eight-image portfolio showed ordinary people moving through extraordinary places, from a temple in Bagan to a thermal bath in Budapest. Other big winners included Matjaz Krivic of Slovenia for the Travel portfolio, Marinka Masséus of the Netherlands for Faces, People, Cultures, and 14-year-old Isabella Smith from the United States, named Young Travel Photographer of the Year.
TPOTY was founded by travel photographer Chris Coe with Karen Coe; the first edition opened for entries in February 2003, and the competition is run from Suffolk in England. It was set up to push travel photography beyond postcard views towards people, culture, wildlife and the small moments that make a place. Entries are judged by an international panel of photographers, editors, picture buyers and technical specialists, and the best work is shown in exhibitions; the organisers say their London shows in 2018 and 2019 drew more than two million visitors. Over the years entrants have come from 151 countries; the 2018 contest alone reportedly attracted around 20,000 images.
Below are 50 standout images from the 2018 results, grouped by category, with the story behind each one. Award labels follow TPOTY's published 2018 results where we could confirm them.
Overall winner: Stefano Pensotti, Italy
Pensotti's winning portfolio connected people across continents through the way they use the spaces around them.
A schoolgirl's pause in Bagan
A girl on her way to school stops to pray in one of the small temples on the plain of Bagan in Myanmar, where more than 2,000 Buddhist monuments survive from the 11th to 13th centuries. A single beam of light falls between her and the seated Buddha, making the scene feel both intimate and monumental. It is the kind of quiet daily ritual that tourists rarely see.
Chess in the Széchenyi Baths
At Budapest's Széchenyi Baths, opened in 1913 and fed by natural hot springs, regulars play chess on floating boards while steam rises around them. Pensotti captured the relaxed social life of the baths, which locals treat as a meeting place as much as a pool. The contrast with the Bagan image shows the range of his portfolio: devotion in one place, leisure in another.
Faces, People, Cultures
Copper bracelets of the Suri – Danny Yen Sin Wong, Malaysia (Best Single Image)
A small boy with painted face stands framed by the forearms of Suri women, each stacked with copper bangles. The Suri live in the West Omo Zone of south-western Ethiopia, near the South Sudan border, and are known for body painting with clay and natural pigments, which they apply to each other. The symmetry of the arms and the child's steady gaze earned this frame the category's best single image.
Living with albinism – Marinka Masséus, Netherlands (Winner)
Masséus won the portfolio with tender studio portraits of children with and without albinism, posed together to show closeness rather than difference. Albinism is more common in parts of sub-Saharan Africa than elsewhere, and in some areas people with the condition still face stigma, myths and even violence. Her images were made to challenge those beliefs through education and empathy.
A sapeur in Brazzaville – Tariq Zaidi, United Kingdom (Highly Commended)
Elie, a 45-year-old sapeur, strikes a pose on a dusty Brazzaville street in a perfectly cut suit and hat. The Sapeurs belong to La Sape, the "Society of Ambiance-Makers and Elegant People", a Congolese style culture with roots in both Brazzaville and Kinshasa going back to the 1920s. Zaidi photographed sapeurs to show how elegance can be an act of joy and pride amid hardship.
A threshold of light – Sue O'Connell, United Kingdom (Commended)
A man in a white robe walks towards a tall carved doorway, his reflection doubled on the polished stone floor. The warm stone, arches and calm geometry suggest a grand mosque in the Arabian Peninsula, though the exact location was not given with the image. O'Connell's patience in waiting for a single figure gives the architecture its sense of scale.
Orupembe Shop 1 – Ben McRae, Australia (Special Mention)
A woman in a long Victorian-style gown and horn-shaped headdress, the traditional dress of Herero women, stands in the doorway of a small pink store in the empty landscape of north-western Namibia. Orupembe is a remote settlement in the Kunene region. The Herero dress dates back to the colonial era and has become a proud symbol of identity.
Inside a Nenets chum – Vladimir Alekseev, Russia (Special Mention)
Children peer out from a chum, the portable cone-shaped tent of the Nenets, made from long poles covered with stitched reindeer hides. Around 50,000 Nenets live along Russia's Arctic coast, many still following reindeer herds on carefully planned seasonal migrations. A chum can be taken down and moved as quickly as the herd moves.
Travel portfolio winner: Matjaz Krivic, Slovenia
Krivic is a documentary photographer who has worked for around 25 years in places shaped by tradition, religious devotion and social unrest, and he won a World Press Photo award in 2016. His winning portfolio moved between Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
Onno, a girl of the Arbore
A close portrait of Onno, a teenage girl from the Arbore people of southern Ethiopia's Omo Valley region, wearing layers of coloured bead necklaces. The shallow focus and direct gaze put all the attention on her face. Arbore beadwork often signals age and status within the community.
Herders in golden dust
Women and herders drive a flock of sheep and goats through warm, dusty evening light. Krivic often shoots in the hour before sunset, when dust turns the air amber and softens the edges of a scene. The exact location was not given with the image.
Shoes that walked too far
A young herder's shoes, worn through so that his toes push out of the canvas. Krivic has said he met the boy carrying the ruined shoes in his hands and patched them with a sewing needle and dental floss so he could keep up with his herd. It is a small picture with a large story about poverty and resourcefulness.
Climbing the minaret in Bani
Children scramble up the main minaret of the Grand Mosque in Bani, Burkina Faso, during the Eid al-Fitr festival. Bani's mud-brick mosques bristle with wooden beams that stick out of the walls; they hold the structure together and serve as scaffolding when the walls are replastered. The low angle makes the tower look like a mountain.
Bathing at the Golden Temple
A Sikh man in an orange turban stands in the sacred pool of the Harmandir Sahib, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, with the gilded shrine reflected behind him. Pilgrims bathe in the pool as an act of devotion. The calm water and soft morning haze give the scene a meditative feel.
Morning in the Haraz mountains
Mist rises from the valley around a stone town perched on a ridge in Yemen's Haraz mountains, where tower houses have been built on cliff tops for centuries. A few lit windows suggest life inside before dawn. The image is a reminder of Yemen's architectural heritage, much of which has been endangered by war.
A traditional wrestling gym
Men train with heavy clubs and a barbell in a bare, blue-walled room that appears to be an akhara, a traditional Indian wrestling gym. Akharas train wrestlers in kushti, a centuries-old style practised on earth floors. Krivic uses a mirror on the right to split the room into two scenes.
More from the Travel category
Sand divers of the Niger – Philip Lee Harvey, United Kingdom (Best Single Image)
A sand diver surfaces beside a boat on the Niger River in Mali. These workers freedive to the riverbed, filling buckets with sand that is sold to the construction industry. The work is exhausting and dangerous, and the photographer noted that many do not return.
Grandmother and child – Magdaléna Straková, Czech Republic (Highly Commended)
A child with wild hair grins at the camera while an older woman in a headscarf laughs beside her. Straková's black-and-white portfolio focused on everyday life and warmth between generations. The tight crop makes it feel like a family snapshot.
A young mahout and his elephant – Magdaléna Straková
A young mahout, an elephant keeper, rests in the shade beneath his elephant, Shanti. Mahouts often spend their whole lives with one animal, and the bond between keeper and elephant is central to the tradition in South Asia. The frame of the elephant's body makes a natural window around him.
Shadows in the street – Magdaléna Straková
Dogs wander between parked cars while the shadows of flying birds streak across the ground. It is a street photograph built from timing: the birds themselves are out of frame, only their shadows remain. The black-and-white treatment turns the scene into a graphic pattern.
Rats at the feet – Magdaléna Straková
Two rats cross a tiled floor near a visitor's bare feet. The scene appears to show a temple such as Karni Mata in Deshnoke, Rajasthan, where around 20,000 rats are protected as holy and visitors enter barefoot. Devotees believe the rats are reincarnated members of the goddess Karni Mata's family.
Taj and Akash on the train – Mauro Di Bettio, Italy (Commended)
Two brothers, Taj and Akash, clamber between the carriages of a moving train. According to the photographer, they travel from station to station every day with their mother, begging for a living. The playful pose hides a hard reality faced by many children who live and work on railways in South Asia.
The Dance of Death in Verges – Mauro Di Bettio
Performers dressed as skeletons, one carrying a scythe, move through the narrow streets of Verges in Catalonia during the Dansa de la Mort, held on the night of Holy Thursday. The dance is believed to be one of the last of its kind in Europe, with roots in the Middle Ages and the medieval "dance of death" tradition that reminded people of mortality.
The ship breakers of Dhaka – Mauro Di Bettio
Workers at the Char Kaliganj shipyards in Dhaka, Bangladesh, haul cables beside the hulls of old ships. Thousands of people work here dismantling and rebuilding vessels; the photographer reported labourers aged from 8 to 80. The work is dirty and dangerous, and the presence of children points to an ongoing problem with child labour in the industry.
A boy and his bear – Mauro Di Bettio
A young man holds a full bearskin costume over his shoulder. It appears to come from the winter bear dance of Romania's Moldavia region, where groups dressed as bears parade and dance between Christmas and New Year to chase away the old year. His serious expression contrasts with the snarling bear head.
Wolf or dog? – Sylvia Michel, Switzerland (Special Mention)
A white Swiss shepherd stands on a rock above an alpine lake, the jagged peaks mirrored in the water. Many viewers mistake the dog for a wolf, which the photographer has said is part of what drew her to the breed. The image works like a fairy-tale illustration of the Swiss Alps.
A climber in the Grand Tsingy – Marsel van Oosten, Netherlands (Special Mention)
A tiny climber with a red light is dwarfed by the razor-sharp limestone pinnacles of the Tsingy de Bemaraha in north-western Madagascar. "Tsingy" roughly means "where one cannot walk barefoot" in Malagasy; the needles formed as groundwater dissolved the limestone. Van Oosten climbed up during the night to be in place for the early light.
Yin and yang in feathers – Yingting Shih, Taiwan (Special Mention)
A bird preening its feathers curls its neck into a shape the photographer compared to the taijitu, the circular yin-yang symbol of Daoist philosophy. The caption described it as a red crane, although the pink plumage looks more like a flamingo's. Either way, the image turns an everyday behaviour into an abstract design.
Ice on Iceland's black sand – Paul Sansome, United Kingdom (Special Mention)
Chunks of glacial ice sit on a black volcanic beach as waves pull back around them, blurred by a long exposure. Scenes like this are typical of the coast near Iceland's Jökulsárlón lagoon, where icebergs break off a glacier and wash ashore. Sansome's portfolio explored how Icelanders live alongside such a raw landscape.
Natural World
Fuego under the Milky Way – Florent Mamelle, France (Best Single Image)
Guatemala's Fuego volcano glows with lava under a sky full of stars, photographed from the summit of neighbouring Acatenango at about 4,000 metres. Fuego is one of Central America's most active volcanoes. Very clear air at that altitude let the photographer capture the Milky Way and the eruption in one frame.
Breakfast on the wheat – Fuyang Zhou, China (Runner-Up)
Two small songbirds perch on ears of wheat, one passing food to the other against a soft golden background. Feeding between birds can be a parent with a fledgling or courtship behaviour between a pair. The pastel light gives the image an almost painted look.
Golden snub-nosed monkeys – Marsel van Oosten (Highly Commended)
An adult golden snub-nosed monkey and a young one sit on a rock in China's Qinling Mountains. The species is listed as Endangered by the IUCN; the figure of about 3,800 individuals often quoted with this image refers to the Qinling subspecies, while estimates for the whole species range from 8,000 to 15,000. These monkeys tolerate colder temperatures than any other non-human primate.
A chameleon in full colour – Ignacio Palacios, Spain (Commended)
A detail of a brightly banded chameleon, its tail curled into a tight spiral. The vivid reds, greens and blues suggest a panther chameleon, a species from Madagascar famous for its colour variations. Chameleons change colour mainly to communicate and regulate temperature, not just for camouflage.
The diving kingfisher – Petar Sabol, Croatia (Special Mention)
A common kingfisher plunges underwater after a fish in a canal near Petar Sabol's home village of Goričan, Croatia. Sabol reportedly spent hours waiting for the bird before capturing the dive. Freezing that split second underwater takes fast shutter speeds and a great deal of patience.
Polar bears on melting ice – Roie Galitz, Israel (Special Mention)
A mother polar bear and her two cubs stand on a small floe in open water. Polar bears depend on sea ice to hunt seals, and earlier melting forces them to travel further or fast for longer. The image quietly makes a point about climate change.
Barnacles and a mussel – Antwan Janssen, Netherlands (Special Mention)
A dark mussel sits in the middle of a dense colony of goose barnacles, creating a striking pattern of pale shells. Goose barnacles attach to rocks, driftwood and floating objects and filter food from the water. Janssen turned a common shoreline scene into an abstract composition.
Single-image categories: Hot/Cold, Tranquillity, Beauty of Light and Smart Shot
A London snowman – Philip Lee Harvey (Hot/Cold, Joint Winner)
A woman in black looks towards the Houses of Parliament through falling snow, next to a cheerful snowman. Snow rarely settles in London for long, and when it does, snowmen appear across the city. Harvey shared the Hot/Cold category win with Andrew James.
Seal meets penguin – Andrew James, United Kingdom (Hot/Cold, Joint Winner)
A large elephant seal and a gentoo penguin face each other in a snowstorm, like strangers on a windy street corner. Both species breed in the sub-Antarctic, often on the same beaches. Some galleries list this as runner-up, but TPOTY's results name James as joint winner of the category.
Pilgrims in a snowstorm – He Jian, China
Pilgrims wrapped in heavy clothing walk through driving snow on a pilgrimage road, with a monastery town behind them on what appears to be the Tibetan plateau. The image has circulated online as a Hot/Cold winner, but TPOTY's published 2018 results list Philip Lee Harvey and Andrew James as joint winners, so that award label is unconfirmed.
Photographing bears in a blizzard – Joshua Holko, Australia (Hot/Cold, Highly Commended)
A photographer bundled in winter gear points a long lens through a winter storm in Svalbard, waiting for polar bears. It is a behind-the-scenes look at what wildlife photography in the Arctic demands. Temperatures there can fall far below freezing in winter.
Lava meets the sea – Stephen King, Hong Kong (Hot/Cold, Commended)
Molten lava from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano pours into the ocean, sending up clouds of steam. Where lava meets seawater, it cools quickly and can build new land, but the steam plumes contain acid and fine glass particles, so visitors are kept at a distance. The long exposure smooths the waves into a blue haze.
Dusky dolphins – Scott Portelli, Australia (Tranquillity, Commended)
A dusky dolphin glides near the surface in a black-and-white frame from the waters off Kaikoura, New Zealand. Deep underwater canyons close to the coast there bring nutrients and food, attracting large pods. The quiet monochrome made it a fit for the Tranquillity category.
Blue morning on the river – Zhenzheng Hu, China (Beauty of Light, Commended)
A lone boat crosses a river under forested hills while a band of mist catches the first light. The blue and gold tones come from the meeting of shadow and early sun. No location was given, but the scene recalls the misty river landscapes of southern China.
A glowing ice block – Edward Graham, United States (Beauty of Light, Commended)
Graham lay flat on the ground to line up a block of ice with the setting sun, which lit it from behind in gold. The warm glow makes the ice look almost like amber, even though the scene was bitterly cold. It shows how much a low camera position can change an ordinary subject.
Shanghai's interchange – Oscar Tarneberg, United Kingdom (Beauty of Light, Commended)
Seen from above at night, a famous Shanghai highway interchange glows with blue lighting and streaks of traffic where two of the city's main arteries cross. The image turns infrastructure into something close to abstract art. Shanghai's elevated roads have become a favourite subject for drone and rooftop photographers.
Asleep at the fish market – Nicola Young, United Kingdom (Smart Shot, Winner)
A fishmonger rests his head on his stall in the fish market of Port Louis, Mauritius. Young took the picture on a phone during a trip disrupted by Cyclone Berguitta in January 2018, when stormy weather drove visitors from the beaches into the markets. The Smart Shot category is for images taken with smartphones.
How windy is it? – Josien van Geffen, Netherlands (Smart Shot, Commended)
A boy on a pebble beach is suddenly wrapped by a towel snapping in the wind. His father had thrown it towards him to test how hard the wind was blowing. It is a perfect example of how a phone in the pocket can catch a funny, fleeting family moment.
Young Travel Photographer and New Talent
Oranges as footballs – Isabella Smith, United States (Young Travel Photographer of the Year)
A boy kicks an orange up a flight of blue-washed steps in what looks like Morocco's blue town of Chefchaouen. Isabella, 14 when she won, said she was struck by how he made a game out of fruit while children at home play with expensive toys. Her eye for colour and gesture won her the overall young photographer title.
Monsoon play – Fardin Oyan, Bangladesh (Young TPOTY 15–18, Winner)
Four children race and leap through a flooded lane during a downpour in Bangladesh. Fardin, then 16, started with a modest compact camera his father bought him in seventh grade. The image captures the pure joy that monsoon rain brings children in South Asia.
Behind the festival mask – Jose Antonio Rosas, Peru (New Talent, Winner)
A dancer in an elaborate feathered headdress covers his face with his hands while a helper adjusts the costume, in a black-and-white frame from a festival series. Rosas, from Lima, took up photography seriously in 2007 after a trip to Antarctica and later studied at the International Center of Photography in New York. His New Talent portfolio focused on festivals and events.
The bear dancers of Romania – Diana Buzoianu, Romania/UK (New Talent, Runner-Up)
A man wearing a full bearskin raises its paws and laughs during a bear-dance parade in Romania. In this midwinter custom, groups dressed as bears dance through towns to drive away evil and welcome the new year. Buzoianu's series captured the noise, colour and humour of the tradition.
What makes a winning travel photograph
Looking across the 2018 winners, a few patterns stand out that any traveller with a camera can learn from:
- People over postcards. The strongest images show how people live, work, pray and play, not just famous views.
- Patience and timing. A kingfisher underwater, a beam of light in Bagan, a towel in the wind: each needed waiting for the right second.
- Respect and context. Many winners spent time with their subjects and learned their stories, which shows in the trust on people's faces.
- Light first. Mist, dust, snow and low sun transformed ordinary scenes in almost every category.
- Any camera can win. The Smart Shot winner used a phone, and the young winners started with simple cameras.
To see the complete list of placings and enter future competitions, visit the TPOTY website.
Sources: all photographs © the credited photographers / Travel Photographer of the Year; TPOTY 2018 winners gallery; TPOTY: about us; Stefano Pensotti on Instagram; Australian Photography: 2018 winners announced; Wikipedia: Suri people; Wikipedia: La Sape; Wikipedia: Nenets; Wikipedia: Karni Mata Temple; Wikipedia: Tsingy de Bemaraha National Park; Wikipedia: Golden snub-nosed monkey.
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