Get set for a round the world tour! Travel Photographer of the Year features superb photography featuring some of the planet’s most amazing sights, and the results of this year’s contest have just been announced.
The contest is a huge one and this year drew more than 20,000 images from professionals and amateurs, hailing from 144 countries. TPotY is split into several subject areas, many of which have Portfolio and Best Image awards within them.
This year’s overall winner was Katy Gomez Catalina, an amateur photographer and doctor of veterinary science from Spain, who is the first-ever Spaniard to scoop the Travel Photographer of the Year crown and only the second woman in the awards’ 17 year history. Her eight image black & white travel portfolio covered everything from the Batwa people of Uganda to the esplanade of the Louvre in Paris. The images were shot on a mix of cameras, including the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Fujifilm X-T1 and X-E2, and Sony RX100 IV.
The UK’s Paul Sansome came out top in the Art of Travel portfolio category, with his eight elegant and colourful images, shot on both Canon EOS 5D Mark II and 6D Mark II bodies. And another British photographer, Geoff Shoults, won the award for the Best Single Image in an Art of Travel portfolio with his serene shot of a walker in the Scottish Highlands, captured on a Fujifilm X-T1.
In the People & Cultures portfolio category, Trevor Cole took top spot with his stunning series of images revealing the Mundari people of South Sudan, all of which were shot on a Nikon D850. And in the same category, Debdatta Chakraborty won the award for Best Single Image with his intimate photograph of the Chhath festival in Kolkata, shot on a Nikon D750.
In the Thrills & Adventure category, the portfolio award went to the USA’s Brian Clopp who spent a week living amongst a herd of wild horses in Utah, camping out in a dusty desert to capture the beasts with his Nikon D850. China’s 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, which was shot on a Canon EOS-1DX Mark II.
This year’s Young Travel Photographer of the Year category went to 11-year-old Indigo Larmour from Ireland, whose shots depicted people at work in India, and was created with a Nikon D600. 13-year-old Daniel Kurian (India/Australia) won the 14 & Under Young TPOTY category with four images of fishermen in Kerala, shot on his Nikon D5600, while the 15-18 age group was won by 16-year-old Ankit Kumar from India with an excellent portfolio showing wildlife and landscapes in Borneo, taken on his Sony A9.
For more category winners and highly commended entries, make sure you head to the 2019 Winners’ Gallery at www.tpoty.com. And if you want to check out the image on display, you can find them at Coal Drops Yard, King’s Cross, London from 7 April to 12 May, followed by Chester Cathedral in June and a TPOTY exhibition at the Xposure International Photography Festival in Sharjah from 17-20 September. They’ll also soon be immortalised in the upcoming Travel Photographer of the Year 2019 book.