Canadian photographer Adam Gibbs won the title of International Landscape Photographer of the Year 2018 with a portfolio of forest and snow scenes from British Columbia, while American Paul Marcellini took the separate prize for the single best image, International Landscape Photograph of the Year, with a picture called “Autumnal Abstract”. Both results come from the fifth edition of the Australian-run contest, which drew nearly 3,000 photographs from more than 800 entrants.
The competition hands out two headline awards. One rewards a body of work, a small portfolio of images, so it favours photographers who can hold a consistent standard. The other rewards one picture on its own merits. Below that sit special category awards for subjects that can make or break a landscape: aerial abstracts, sunrise and sunset, snow and ice, mist and fog, and trees. The top 101 images also went into a printed awards book.
What follows is a guided tour of the 2018 winners and a selection of other images from the top entries, with notes on where each was made and what makes it work.
How the contest works and who runs it
The International Landscape Photographer of the Year awards (often shortened to ILPOTY) began in 2014 and are organised from Australia; the current site is signed by Peter Eastway, who chairs the judging panel, and David Evans. Entry is open to amateurs and professionals anywhere in the world, and each image is paid for individually.
In 2018 the main winner received US$10,000 in cash along with other prizes. Like most landscape contests, it weighs craft and composition alongside that harder quality of impact, and the photographer award rewards someone whose pictures read as a coherent portfolio rather than one lucky frame.
How much editing is acceptable is a running debate in modern landscape work, and the 2018 champion had clear views on it, as the next section shows.
Adam Gibbs: Photographer of the Year
Gibbs works mostly in the coastal and mountain forests of British Columbia. His winning set moves from twisted, moss-dark trunks to shafts of light in fog and trees buried under rime, and the common thread is patience: he waits for the light rather than building it afterwards on a computer. Speaking to My Modern Met about editing, he said he prefers “capturing great light and composition on site, rather than creating something that didn’t exist when I took the photo.”
“Twisted Forest,” Adam Gibbs (Canada), Winner, International Landscape Photographer of the Year
Gnarled trunks curve around the edge of the frame like a doorway, leading the eye toward paler trees deeper in the forest. The picture works because the dark foreground acts as a natural vignette, so no artificial darkening is needed. It is the kind of composition that only appears from one exact spot, which is why it rewards scouting on foot.
“Quiet Light,” Adam Gibbs (Canada), Winner, International Landscape Photographer of the Year
Low sun breaking through mist turns the air itself into the subject, with beams falling between tall conifers. Light rays like these (crepuscular rays) only show when there is moisture or dust to catch them, so the scene may last a few minutes. Gibbs keeps the tones muted, which suits the stillness of an old-growth stand.
“Trees a Crowd,” Adam Gibbs (Canada), Winner, International Landscape Photographer of the Year
Three trees caked in snow and rime stand on a ridge in front of a darker forested slope. The title is a pun on “two’s company, three’s a crowd”, and the arrangement of three uneven shapes gives the frame its rhythm. Lighting the white shapes against a shadowed backdrop keeps them from melting into the snowfield.
Paul Marcellini: Photograph of the Year
Marcellini, a Florida-based photographer, won the single-image prize with a picture that barely looks like a landscape at first glance. It shows how the contest rewards seeing as much as travelling.
“Autumnal Abstract,” Paul Marcellini (USA), Winner, International Landscape Photograph of the Year
Dark tree trunks stand in still water that mirrors warm orange foliage, so the reflection reads like flames between the columns. The symmetry between trunk and reflection is what turns an ordinary swamp edge into an abstract pattern. It is a good reminder that a winning landscape does not need a horizon or a famous location.
Runners-up and category winners
“Blue Ribbons,” Chris Byrne (USA), Winner, The Abstract Aerial Award
Seen from above, milky blue channels of water braid across grey sediment, a pattern typical of glacier-fed rivers. Without a horizon, scale disappears and the river could be a few metres or many kilometres wide. That ambiguity is exactly what the aerial abstract category celebrates.
“Imperial Dunes,” Greg Boratyn (USA), 2nd Place, International Landscape Photographer of the Year
Low side light carves the dunes into bright crests and deep shadow, the classic way to show sand as sculpture. The title points to the Imperial Sand Dunes of south-eastern California, one of the largest dune systems in the United States. Boratyn’s set earned him second place in the portfolio award.
“Singled Out,” Greg Boratyn (USA), 2nd Place, International Landscape Photographer of the Year
Here the same photographer goes the other way: soft, pale dunes and a single small shrub. Almost all the frame is empty, which makes the tiny plant feel important. Minimalist pictures like this are hard to judge on a phone screen and come alive in print.
“Frozen Giants,” Ignacio Palacios (Australia), Winner, The Snow and Ice Award
Conifers coated in thick layers of wind-driven ice and snow take on the look of hunched figures. Formations like these, called “snow monsters” or juhyo in Japan, form when supercooled fog freezes onto trees in strong, steady winds. The grey sky keeps the mood eerie rather than postcard-bright.
“Falling Down I,” Ann Kristin Lindaas (Norway), Winner, The Exemplary Tree Award
A frost-white tree glows against a black background while out-of-focus snowflakes drift across the frame. The near-monochrome treatment strips the scene down to branch structure. The photographer is Norwegian, and the image won the award dedicated to trees.
“Clouds Gather in South America,” Xiao Zhu (China), Winner, The Sunset/Sunrise Award
Lens-shaped clouds glow red and orange above a jagged granite skyline, with pools of water in the foreground catching the colour. Lenticular clouds form when strong winds flow over mountains, which is why they are common in Patagonia. Timing matters: this kind of light often lasts only minutes at dawn or dusk.
“The Archer,” Miles Morgan (USA), 2nd Place, International Landscape Photograph of the Year
A spiny cactus in the foreground leads to rounded boulders and a streak of pink cloud that seems to be fired from the rocks, which may explain the title. The near-far composition, with something sharp close to the lens and a strong shape in the distance, is a staple of desert landscape work. It took second place in the single-image award.
“When Clouds Are Moving,” Peter Svoboda (Slovakia), 3rd Place, International Landscape Photographer of the Year
Moving cloud wraps around a rocky massif, with a narrow band of warm light picking out the ridge. A longer exposure can smooth cloud into this soft, flowing texture. Svoboda’s portfolio placed third overall.
“Calmness Before the Wind Blows,” Peter Svoboda (Slovakia), 3rd Place, International Landscape Photographer of the Year
Sharp peaks under a purple sky reflect in a still lake framed by dark shrubs. The title captures a real feature of mountain lakes: mirror reflections usually happen at dawn before daytime winds pick up. The second image from Svoboda’s third-placed set.
“Alone,” Roberto Marchegiani (Italy). 3rd Place, International Landscape Photograph of the Year
A small tree stands in flooded woodland, softened by fog until the background trees fade to grey. The isolation in the title comes from the mist doing the work of separating subject from clutter. It placed third among single images.
“Rustle of Colorful Leaves,” Oliver Wehrli (Switzerland), Winner, The Mist and Fog Award
Autumn beech trunks recede into fog, with yellow and orange leaves glowing against the haze. Fog compresses colour and contrast with distance, giving the forest a layered, stage-like depth. The image won the mist and fog category.
Highlights from the top 101
Beyond the prize list, these pictures from the top-ranked entries show the range of places and techniques in the 2018 field.
Keetmanshoop, Namibia. Andrey Omelyanchuk (Russian Federation)
A quiver tree spreads its crown against a twilight sky near Keetmanshoop in southern Namibia, home of the well-known Quiver Tree Forest. Despite the name, the plant is a tree-sized aloe (Aloidendron dichotomum), and its hollowed branches were reportedly used by San hunters as quivers. Lighting the foreground at dusk makes the trunk and rocks stand out from the sky.
White Mountains National Forest, New Hampshire, USA. Matt MacPherson (USA).
Blue ice shapes frame a small window of light, looking up from inside a frozen formation. New Hampshire’s White Mountains are known for long, hard winters, and frozen waterfalls and ice curtains draw climbers and photographers alike. The cold blue cast is natural: dense ice absorbs red light and passes blue.
Southern USA. Thorsten Scheuermann (USA)
Massive cypress trunks rise from dark water, with one bright green sapling catching the light in the middle. Bald cypress swamps are a signature habitat of the American South. The small burst of colour gives the eye a resting point among the heavy vertical shapes.
South East coast of Australia. Warren Keelan (Australia)
A breaking wave curls under a stormy sky, frozen by a fast shutter so every droplet hangs in the air. Keelan is known for photographing waves from inside the water, which means swimming with the camera in a waterproof housing. It is landscape photography where the landscape is moving at speed.
Between Waynoka and Enid, Oklahoma, USA. John Finney (United Kingdom)
A rotating storm cloud towers over a straight rural road in northern Oklahoma, part of the region known as Tornado Alley. Supercell structures like this are what storm chasers travel thousands of kilometres to see. The road gives scale and pulls the eye straight into the storm.
Red Sand Garden (Royal Botanic Gardens), Cranbourne, Victoria, Australia. Peter Virag (Australia)
From above, the Red Sand Garden at the Australian Garden in Cranbourne becomes a pattern of rings of grey-green plants on rust-red ground with curving crescent forms. The garden was designed to evoke the colours of Australia’s arid interior. An aerial view reveals the design in a way no visitor on foot can see.
Narvtinden, Lofoten, Norway. Daniel Laan (The Netherlands)
The peak of Narvtinden in Norway’s Lofoten Islands glows pink at first light above a lake surface covered with cracked ice. The cracks act as leading lines toward the mountain. Lofoten sits above the Arctic Circle, where winter light stays low and warm for hours.
White Mountains, California, USA. Werner Van Steen (Belgium)
A weathered bristlecone pine bends under the Milky Way in California’s White Mountains. The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest there holds some of the oldest known living trees, several thousand years old. High altitude and dry air also make the range one of the darker night-sky locations in the state.
Mount Bromo, Jawa, Indonesia. Callie Chee (Australia)
Steam rises from Mount Bromo, an active volcano inside the vast Tengger caldera in East Java, with the taller Semeru visible behind. Visitors usually watch sunrise from viewpoints on the caldera rim, when fog fills the “sea of sand” below. Bromo’s activity level changes, so access is sometimes restricted.
Eastern Sierra, California, USA. Cindy Lee Hoover (USA)
Golden aspens glow beneath a shadowed granite wall, with a single bare white trunk standing out against the dark rock. The Eastern Sierra is famous for its autumn aspen colour, usually from late September into October. The contrast of warm leaves and cold stone carries the picture.
Pindan shoreline, near Broome, Western Australia. Mat Beetson (Australia)
An aerial view shows bands of red earth and white water meeting along the coast, with a single green tree as the focal point. Pindan is the local name for the red, iron-rich soil of the Kimberley region around Broome. The strong colour blocks make it read almost like a painting.
Namib-Naukluft National Park, Namibia. Tom Putt (Australia)
Patterns of sand and dried channels spread out like veins in an aerial view of Namibia’s Namib-Naukluft National Park, one of the largest protected areas in Africa. The Namib is often described as one of the world’s oldest deserts. Side light from a low sun brings out every ridge.
Calafuria Cliffs, Tuscany, Italy. Nicola Pirondini (Italy)
Honeycomb hollows in sandstone fill the frame on the Calafuria coast south of Livorno. This weathering, called tafoni, forms as salt crystals grow in the rock and break it apart grain by grain. Cool blue light and warm reflections turn a close-up of rock into a full landscape.
Grosser Rachel, National Park Bayerischer Wald, Bavaria, Germany. Lukáš Veselý (Czech Republic)
Dead spruce trunks stand under the Milky Way on Grosser Rachel, one of the highest peaks in the Bavarian Forest National Park. The park, Germany’s first national park, lets forest affected by bark beetles regenerate naturally, which leaves these silver snags as part of the landscape. Meteor streaks add movement to the night sky.
Hanksville, Utah, USA. Miles Morgan (USA)
A rock spire rises from grey badlands near Hanksville in southern Utah, a region of eroded shale hills and mesas. Late light picks out the ridge leading to the spire and leaves the rest in shadow. Miles Morgan also took second place for single image with “The Archer”.
What the 2018 winners teach about landscape photography
- Light beats location. Many of the strongest images come from ordinary forests and swamps photographed in fog, low sun or after snowfall.
- Look for pattern. Aerial and abstract frames, from braided rivers to garden designs, win when shape and colour carry the picture without a horizon.
- Use foreground with purpose. A cactus, a crack in ice or a ridge line pulls the viewer into the frame.
- Consistency wins portfolios. Gibbs won the main title with a set that shares a voice, not just with one lucky shot.
The contest has run every year since, so the 2018 list is best read as a snapshot of one year’s judging rather than a ranking of photographers today. Follow ILPOTY on its website, Facebook or Instagram for later results and the limited-edition awards book.
Sources: My Modern Met: 2018 International Landscape Photographer of the Year winners; International Landscape Photographer of the Year (official site). All photographs © the credited photographers, courtesy of ILPOTY.
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