Katy Gomez Catalina/www.tpoty.com

Katy Gomez Catalina, an amateur photographer and doctor of veterinary science from Spain, has become the first-ever Spanish overall winner of the international 'Travel Photographer of the Year' awards (TPOTY). 

More than 20,000 images were submitted in the 2019 global awards by professional and amateur photographers in 144 countries. 

One image can change us.

A picture, a moment can change the way we feel. Change how we see ourselves. Change our understanding and change the rules. Provoke and change history.

MPB puts photo and video kit into more hands, more sustainably. Every month, visual storytellers sell more than 20,000 cameras and lenses to MPB. Choose used and get affordable access to kit that doesn’t cost the earth. Sell the kit you’re not using to MPB. Trade in for the kit you need to create. Buy used, spend less and get more. Buy. Sell. Trade. Create.

Katy Gomez Catalina’s eight black & white images are atmospheric and diverse, covering everything from the Batwa people of Uganda to the esplanade of the Louvre in Paris. 

Debdatta Chakraborty/www.tpoty.com

The 'Young Travel Photographer of the Year' title was awarded to 11-year-old Indigo Larmour from Ireland with her beautifully-composed portfolio depicting hands at work in India. 13-year-old Daniel Kurian (India/Australia) won the '14 & Under Young TPOTY' category with four images of fishermen in Kerala, while the '15-18 age group' was won by 16-year-old Ankit Kumar from India with a lovely portfolio showing wildlife and landscapes in Borneo.

British photographer Paul Sansome won the 'Art of Travel' portfolio category with eight elegant and colourful images, while another British photographer - Geoff Shoults - won the award for the 'Best Single Image in an Art of Travel' portfolio with his serene image of a walker in the Scottish Highlands.

The 'Endangered Planet' portfolio category was won by Belgian photographer Alain Schroeder - a former overall winner of the TPOTY awards - for his moving images of the rescue and rehabilitation of Indonesian orangutans. Australian photographer Jason Edwards won the award for the 'Best Single Image in an Endangered Planet' portfolio for his poignant and heart-breaking image of the charred remains of an elephant that fell victim to poachers in Botswana.

Brian Clopp/www.tpoty.com

Trevor Cole took top honours in the 'People & Cultures' portfolio with a delicate portfolio depicting the Mundari people of South Sudan, while Debdatta Chakraborty (India) won the award for 'Best Single Image in a People & Cultures' portfolio with his intimate photograph of the Chhath festival in Kolkata.

American photographer Brian Clopp spent a week living amongst a herd of wild horses in Utah, USA, camping out in a dusty desert to capture the portfolio which won the 'Thrills & Adventures' portfolio category. Quanhou Lu won the award for 'Best Single Image in a Thrills & Adventures' portfolio with a bird’s eye view of a spectacular bridge crossing in Xingjiang in the photographer’s native China.

Will Burrard-Lucas/www.tpoty.com

Will Burrard-Lucas (UK) worked with the Kenya Wildlife Service to photograph black rhinos, and his powerful night-time image of one of these magnificent animals shared top honours in the 'Dusk to Dawn' single image category with an atmospheric Cuban street scene shot by Sumit Dua (USA/UK). Ignacio Palacios (Australia/Spain) won the 'Oceans, Seas, Rivers, Lakes' single image category with a beautiful aerial image of the sand dunes in Parque Nacional dos Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil, and Robin Yong (Malaysia) won the 'Street Life' single image category with his eye-catching B&W image of an elderly woman and a muscular young man in Havana, Cuba.

'Smart Shot, iTravelled' is for single images taken on a smartphone or tablet. American photographer Benjamin Shaul captured a clever shot of flamingos in Aruba to win the category.

Benjamin Shaul/www.tpoty.com

This year TPOTY threw some of the voting open to the general public, with the 'People’s Choice Award', which was voted for online from 100 images shortlisted by the TPOTY judges. More than 11,000 votes were received, and the image with the highest score was Robin Yong’s shot of the elderly lady and her strong young male companion.

Finally, for the first time, TPOTY joined forces with former overall winner Timothy Allen to present a place on the 'Timothy Allen Photography Scholarship Award' (TAPSA) to one TPOTY entrant. TAPSA recognises and rewards original documentary travel photography with a scholarship run in conjunction with Xposure Photography Festival and the Sharjah Government Media Bureau, Kiran Ridley (UK) won the 'TAPSA Travel Documentaries' category with his ten images documenting democracy protestors in Hong Kong in the summer of 2019.

Amit Eshel/www.tpoty.com

The awards were judged by an international panel of imaging experts which included Panamanian double Pulitzer Prize-winner Essdras M Suarez and Lawrence Jackson, a former official White House photographer under the Obama Administration.

How To View The Winning Images

The winning images can be viewed in the 2019 Winners' Gallery and will go on display from 7 April to 12 May in Coal Drops Yard, King’s Cross, a new location for TPOTY’s London exhibition. The winning images will also be exhibited in the magnificent South Transept of Chester Cathedral in June and a TPOTY exhibition will also feature at the Xposure International Photography Festival in Sharjah (17-20 September).