Natural Landscape Photography Awards Winners

Posted on Feb 28, 2023

The winners of the Natural Landscape Photography Awards have been announced

In its second year, the competition was created to promote the very best in landscape photography, covering digital and film. Valuing realism and authenticity, it established important rules to avoid ‘deceptive’ digital editing techniques now commonplace in the world landscape photography.

10,700 images were submitted from across 55 countries by 1,179 photographers. Three distinctive categories were established, including Grand Scenic, Intimate Landscapes and Abstract and Details. A unique ‘Project’ section was created for photographers to submit 6-10 images that relate to one another in some way.

Eight leaders and world-class photographers judged the competition through a transparent and fair process.

Overall winner

Brent Clarke, USA

Brent Clark won the overall Natural Landscape Photography Awards for 2022 and went home with his share of $38,750 in prizes, including cash, Canon cameras and printers, F-Stop Gear, FLM Tripods, and subscriptions to Nature Photographer’s Network.

“I am honored and stunned to receive the distinction of the Natural Landscape Photography Award’s Natural Landscape Photographer of the Year!

Last year’s NLPA was the first photography competition I had ever entered, because most competitions seem to reward a style of image I prefer not to create and a mindset I do not have. What caught my attention with the NLPA was its esteemed judges and core values, rather than the prizes and recognition that come with winning. I felt like entering was to cast a vote for what I wanted to see more of in the landscape photography community – natural and inspirational imagery, grounded in reality.“

© Brent Clark, "Perched" - California - A lone bush perches on volcanic badlands in the desert.

© Brent Clark, "The Elements" - Wyoming - In a vignette of remote wilderness, fresh ice patterns reflect early morning light on a mountainside.

© Brent Clark, "The Unexpected" - Arizona - A boulder and unusually colored mud create interesting shapes without a sense of scale.

© Brent Clark, "Invasion of Privacy" - Arizona - A lone bush's solitude is interrupted by a photographer visiting remote badlands.

© Brent Clark, "Amor Fati" - California - Light breaks through an out-of-frame mountain pass to illuminate one shapely section of sand dunes.

© Brent Clark, "Mono No Aware" - Wisconsin - An uncommon fog on Christmas Eve is the perfect complement to the color and shape of the oak trees that were able to hang onto their leaves.

© Brent Clark, "Thanksgiving" - Utah - Soft golden light illuminates a wonderful display of color in a riparian and remote desert canyon.

© Brent Clark, "Caring for Life" - Utah - Rabbitbrush and a sandstone canyon wall come together to create a beautiful display of color and shape.

© Brent Clark, "Sacred Stillness" - California - Blue and yellow colored walls contrast in a remote and quiet desert canyon.

© Brent Clark, "Little Mosaic" - Wyoming - Tiny leaves form a swirl pattern at the edge of an alpine lake and are temporarily frozen into place.

© Brent Clark, "Shadow Self" - Utah - A young cottonwood tree with a cheerful exterior casts a long shadow against a canyon wall.

© Brent Clark, "That Natural Glow" - California - Layers of sand dunes catch the last light on a windy day, creating a natural glowing effect

Runner-up Photographer of the Year

Antonio Fernandez, Spain

“Nature continually shows us abstractions and realities that seem magical. They seem difficult to see but they are there. They are whimsical forms and patterns, attractive harmonies, and natural structures that we only manage to observe when we extract the essence of the whole or take a different view of the natural environment.

It is a great satisfaction for me that my photographs have been awarded this prize. It is a wonderful recognition of my effort to try to share those memorable moments when nature invites us to be mere spectators of its beauty.”

Photograph of the Year

Jim Lamont and Philipp Jakesch won the joint-first prize for ‘Photograph of the Year’.

Jim Lamont, Canada, A shadow falls on the Lowell Glacier, 2022

The photograph shows the shadow cast by some peaks on the surface of the Lowell Glacier, in Kluane National Park, Yukon Territory, Canada. It was taken on a July morning in 2022 from a Cessna 172 as part of a decades-long project on glaciers. With climate change the Lowell Glacier, like most glaciers in the world, is crumbling into ruin, its surface gradually disappearing beneath dirt and rubble as the ice melts. The image is intended to suggest the wave of destruction that will overwhelm us unless we stop dumping carbon into the atmosphere.

© Jim Lamont, A shadow falls on the Lowell Glacier

Philipp Jakesch, US, Ardor

“When I decided to visit the volcanic site on the Reykjanes Peninsula, I was uncertain how it would be and how dangerous it was. Luckily we had good conditions and good filters to protect our lungs. The Image called “Ardor” is one of my favourite images from the volcanic series because of the small fragment of this huge area. The blue hour threw ambient blue light on the background layers, with the orange lava standing out even more. The 1,100°C hot liquid earth is frozen in time. Even though my distance to the erupting volcano was about 500 Meters, I could feel the radiating heat with every outbreak.”

Project of the Year

Daniel Mirlea, Romania, Forestis

“One of the beauties of Romania is the virgin forests spread in the Carpathian Mountains. It represents one of the country’s natural treasuries, and even though some are parts of different natural parks, they are still endangered.”