20 Jaw-Dropping Images From The 2025 International Photography Awards

The 2025 International Photography Awards once again showcased the astonishing talent and boundless creativity of photographers from every corner of the globe. From hauntingly beautiful portraits to surreal landscapes and powerful documentary moments, the submissions pushed the boundaries of visual storytelling and left jurors utterly captivated.

In this curated collection, we bring you some jaw-dropping images that stood out among thousands of entries, each one a testament to the artistry, emotion, and innovation that define the very best in contemporary photography. Prepare to be inspired, moved, and amazed by these unforgettable shots that redefine what a photograph can be.

More info: Instagram | photoawards.com

#1 “50/50” By Abstract Aerial Art

Image source: International Photography Awards 1st Place / Nature/Aerial / Drone.

#2 “The Guardian” By Katarzyna Okrzesik-Mikolajek

Image source: International Photography Awards 3rd Place / Nature/Domestic Animals. Description: “Arabian horses photographed in one of the caves in Cappadocia, Turkey.”

#3 “A Place Called Home” By Fenqiang Liu

Image source: International Photography Awards 2nd Place / Nature/Sunrise / Sunset. Description: “It was early November, a year and a half ago, and I was canoeing through a quiet Louisiana swamp just after sunrise. Soft morning light filtered through the trees, creating a peaceful yet otherworldly atmosphere. A Great Egret glided gracefully across the water, catching my attention and drawing my lens to the richness of the swamp—a warm, thriving place that many creatures call home.”

#4 “Another World” By Wayne Sorensen

Image source: International Photography Awards 2nd Place / Nature/Aerial / Drone. Description: “The soda lakes of Kenya are like a beautiful, but bizarre, science experiment. With a high concentration of sodium at the lake bed, the combination of hot springs and minerals creates a myriad of colors and textures. It’s truly Mother Nature’s artistry at its finest. And if that’s not enough, the lakes are home to many thousands of flamingos that feed on the algae. Flying at high altitude in a helicopter, I was able to capture this incredible series of images. The images show an otherworldly landscape, both in isolation from all signs of life and with the flamingos in their natural habitat.”

#5 “Corkscrew” By Cain Shimizu

Image source: International Photography Awards 1st Place / Event/Other. Description: “We are fascinated by the flawless performances of the Japanese aerobatic flying team, who always perform tricks that are far more dangerous than we could ever imagine.”

#6 “Unbridled” By Aga Karmol

Image source: International Photography Awards 1st Place / Nature/Domestic Animals. Description: “Andalusian stallion at liberty, expressing his temperament and character in his powerful movements.”

#7 “Echoes Of Waste” By Lakshitha Karunarathna

Image source: International Photography Awards 1st Place / Nature/Environmental / Editorial. Description: “A lone Sri Lankan elephant forages through a vibrant but toxic landfill in Ampara. Sri Lanka harbors nearly 10% of the global Asian elephant population, yet poor waste management has turned garbage into a deadly lure. As habitats shrink, elephants increasingly scavenge open dumps, developing dangerous addictions to waste. Many suffer from microplastic and polythene indigestion, leading to internal injuries, starvation, and death. This escalating crisis demands urgent reforms in waste disposal and conflict mitigation to ensure coexistence.”

#8 “Phare Du Petit Minou” By Deryk Baumgaertner

Image source: International Photography Awards 3rd Place / Architecture/Aerial / Drone. Description: “Phare du Petit Minou is the name of a lighthouse built in 1848 west of the city of Brest in the Finistère department in Brittany. The picture was taken at blue hour, when suddenly the fog and the onset of rain dramatically intensified the mood. The light from the lighthouse reflected in the fog bank, creating a magical and eerie lighting situation. Despite concerns about the rain, that was reason enough to let the drone fly up briefly and capture the mood on the sensor.”

#9 “The Soul Of Namibia” By Jeet Khagram

Image source: International Photography Awards 1st Place / Nature/Landscape. Description: “Namibia challenged my eye and spirit. In Sossusvlei, I watched light dance on endless dunes and shadows stretch like stories across sand. Deadvlei felt frozen in time, its trees standing like ghosts of the past. Swakopmund offered contrast where ocean mist met desert silence. Behind the lens, I wasn’t just capturing landscapes. I was chasing emotion, scale, and the feeling of being small in a place so vast and untouched it felt like another world.”

#10 “Masters Of The Air” By Christiaan Van Heijst

Image source: International Photography Awards 1st Place / Special/Night Photography “A transcontinental giant meets a celestial body — a Boeing 747 framed in silhouette as it cuts across the face of the moon. This monochrome image captures a fleeting alignment of engineering and eternity, highlighting the poetry of flight against the vast stillness of space.”

#11 “Jump Into The Night” By Tom Weller

Image source: International Photography Awards 1st Place / Sports/Winter sports, 1st Place / Editorial / Press/Sports. Description: “Antti Aalto from Finland in action during his jump at the individual HS137 qualification of the men's Four Hills Tournament in Oberstdorf on 28 December 2024.”

#12 “Walk On Water” By Joyce Helms-Harkema

Image source: International Photography Awards 2nd Place / Nature/Domestic Animals. Description: “Bushra the Saluki is walking on water at the beach in the Netherlands.”

#13 “Legend1” By Abolghasem Khoshro

Image source: International Photography Awards 3rd Place / Fine Art/Minimal / Minimalism. Description: “Legend, a purebred German horse kept at Mr. Vasal's farm in the suburbs of Alborz province, 70 Km to Tehran, Iran.”

#14 “Lonely Tree, Lencois Maranhenses” By Ignacio Palacios

Image source: International Photography Awards 3rd Place / Nature/Landscape. Description: “Lencois Maranhenses, Brazil.”

#15 “Future Death” By Daniel Flormann

Image source: International Photography Awards 2nd Place / Nature/Environmental / Editorial Description: “Captured in October 2024 in Indonesia, this image shows a local fisherman’s net where three small sharks were caught as bycatch. Attracted by anchovies, the main catch, a whale shark already injured (most probably by a boat propeller), approached but avoided contact. With 100 million sharks killed annually, mostly for fins or bycatch, this whale shark faces its own grim future—brutally killed for human luxury, ignoring the catastrophic impact on our oceans and the survival of humanity.”

#16 “Modern Vanitas” By Liz Obert

Image source: International Photography Awards 3rd Place / Fine Art/Still Life. Description: “Modern Vanitas is a reflection on mortality and mass consumption via still lives.”

#17 “Amidst The Rubble Of Disaster” By Mehrdad Oskouei

Image source: International Photography Awards 1st Place / Analog / Film/Photojournalism. Description: “Earthquake in a village near the city of Qazvin in Iran. A boy searches in confusion for other family members and his belongings and school supplies hours after his house was destroyed.”

#18 “Resistance” By Meaghan Paul

Image source: International Photography Awards 3rd Place / Special/Night Photography. Description: “In response to my art, a woman once challenged me saying, "Lol, who would have thought photography would be political?" Indeed, I believe art by its very nature is political. It must be political. We live in dangerous times. We must use whatever voice is ours to use. Our silence is a complicity. The handmaid, once a character of fiction, now walks the streets in protests. In this image, the silent figure under the electric eye is not a figure of submission, but defiance. The handmaid's costume is no longer a costume. It is a uniform of protest, a scarlet flare against institutional darkness.”

#19 “Ancient Landscape” By Hiroki Matsubara

Image source: International Photography Awards 1st Place / Fine Art/Landscape. Description: “This is a view of Mount Bromo taken in Indonesia. I snapped the shutter at the moment it erupted from the active volcano. The sky and the earth are tinted pink by the morning glow, and the ground is filled with a sea of clouds.”

#20 “Burning Man” By Guanhong Chen

Image source: International Photography Awards 2nd Place / Event/Other. Description: “The Black Rock City of Burning Man in the depths of the desert only exists for eight days a year, and two travelers walk towards the temple that will be burned.”