Find Out Who Has Won The Travel Photographer Of The Year 2021 Photography Competition

OVERALL WINNER – THE TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2021: Fortunato Gatto, Italy

From abstract images of the 'paintings' created by the sand and tides in the Scottish Hebrides to a Ramadan breakfast amidst the devastation of a Syrian town... the entries for the Travel Photographer of the Year 2021 certainly do not disappoint! 

20,000 images were submitted from photographers in 151 countries giving us a diverse and glorious view of life on our planet.

The Overall Winner - the Travel Photographer of the Year 2021 - is Fortunato Gatto. This Italian photographer has been based in Scotland since 2007, and his deep love of his adopted country is reflected in his sumptuous, detailed abstract images of patterns in the sand in the Hebrides which form part of his winning selection. In addition, his images of a ‘meeting of the seasons’ in Alaska draw you in, with a wonderful sense of place, to one of the earth’s most beautiful remote places.

Two fledgling photographers from America caught the judges’ eye in the Young TPOTY contest. 18-year-old Jai Shet’s beautiful series of forest images capturing the seasons won him the title of Young Travel Photographer of the Year, while his fellow American, 16-year-old Tevin Kim, won the 15-18 Year category for images of homes and barns in ‘Mormon Row’, Wyoming. And 13-year-old Indigo Larmour from Ireland features in the Young TPOTY roll of honour for the third year in succession, this time taking top honours in the 14 and Under category with a dynamic portfolio capturing camel racing in Sharjah.

YOUNG TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 14 YEARS AND UNDER CATEGORY WINNER: Indigo Larmour, Ireland (age 13)

Another Italian photographer - Alessandro Bergamini - won the Best 8 portfolio category with eight images that gave great insight into the lives and communities of his subjects in Afghanistan, China, India, Myanmar and Russia. Belgian Alain Schroeder’s action-packed black and white image of hundreds of men on horseback fiercely competing to win a game of ‘dead goat polo’ in Kyrgyzstan was voted the Best Single Image winner of the Best 8 category.
 
US photographer Jie Fischer was the winner of the Landscape & Adventure category with a colourful, almost abstract portfolio depicting flamingos over the remarkable coloured waters of Lake Magadi in Kenya. Professional ski photographer Pally Learmond (UK) won the Best Single Image award with his striking image of a freeskier on ‘Dirty Needle’ mountain, Alaska.
 
The Living World category was won by British photographer Will Burrard-Lucas, using his self-developed Camtraptions camera trap system to capture images of leopards – including rare melanistic leopards - at night in Kenya, with one particular long exposure shot combined with flash making the leopard appear to emerge from the stars. The Best Single Image award in this category went to Portuguese photographer Jose Fragozo, whose patience and knowledge of hippos enabled him to capture the precise moment one of these powerful creatures opened its eye as it rose from a mud pool.

WINNER: YOUNG TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2021: Jai Shet, USA (AGE 18)

 
Yet another Italian photographer took a top award when Beniamino Pisati won the People & Their Stories category with his black and white portfolio documenting the lives of milk and cheese producers in the mountains of Lombardy. Irish photographer Trevor Cole received the Best Single Image award here for his unusual portrait of a young cattle herder in South Sudan.

In the single image categories, Alain Schroeder took first and second places in Icons of Travel, with his image of the Mansudae Grand Monument in Pyongyang, North Korea taking first prize. Norwegian Johnny Haglund’s image of waste pollution in Belèm, Brazil was the graphic and poignant winner of the Green Planet category at a time when man’s impact on the planet is in the spotlight, and Syrian photojournalist Mouneb Taim received first prize in the As Shot category for his drone shot of a mass Ramadan breakfast held in the ruins of a bomb-damaged Syrian town. The iTravelled category for images shot on a mobile phone or tablet was won by Vietnamese photographer Viet Van Tran, for his colourful, beautifully composed image of a 90-year-old shoemaker in Saigon.
 
The People’s Choice award was decided by members of the public voting on the TPOTY website. The winning image, chosen from 10,419 votes, is by Spanish photographer Dani Salva and shows preparations for the ‘Dance of Death’ in Verges, Spain.

LIVING WORLD PORTFOLIO WINNER: Will Burrard-Lucas, UK

 
Finally, British photographer and filmmaker Philip Lee Harvey won the Travel Shorts video category, with an uplifting video showing the fantastic results of the work of Spotlight on Africa, training seamstresses in Musoto, Uganda.

The winning shots - which can all be viewed in the online Winners’ Gallery on tpoty.com -  will go on display a spectacular, free-to-view outdoor exhibition in a magnificent London venue - Granary Square near King's Cross and St Pancras stations, in April and May 2022.