Winning images from 2023 Travel Photographer of the Year contest reveal world’s beauty and tragedy
By Issy Ronald, CNN
(CNN) — Mist rising from the Tuscan hills, a tiny fish staring at the ocean from inside the neck of a glass bottle, and a pangolin tucked contentedly under the chin of her carer are among the winning entries from the 2023 Travel Photographer of the Year competition.
Shot all around the globe, the images illuminate both the beauty and tragedy that arise when humans interact with the natural world.
Judges crowned Slovenian photographer AndreJa Ravnak the overall winner for her depictions of dream-like European landscapes, after considering more than 20,000 images submitted by photographers from more than 150 countries.
Ravnak, an architect by trade, acknowledged the “complex task” faced by the judges and thanked them in a statement for recognizing her work.
“I’ve seen many excellent and creative photos in this year’s TPOTY final and it’s such a great honour to find my work recognized,” she said.
“Congratulations to all the winners; together, we are enthusiastically documenting this wonderful world, and perhaps this is a small contribution, a reminder to preserve its wonder for future generations.”
Other winners included Athanasios Maloukos in the “People and Cultures” category for his photos of shamans performing rituals to connect with spirits in Siberia; Martin Broen in the “Nature, Wildlife & Conservation” category with his photo series of the Mobula ray migration in Mexico; and Armand Sarlangue for his images of Iceland’s roiling landscapes in the “Landscape and Environment” category.
Meanwhile, 14-year-old Caden Shepard Choi won the Young Travel Photographer of the Year award for her black-and-white series of photos depicting the Navajo people of Chinle, Arizona herding sheep, shearing them and then weaving with the wool.
Her fellow American, Lilly Zhang, 17, won the 15–18-year-old category with her ethereal images of a Pennsylvania lake, and the wildlife drawn to it, in the early morning light.
All the winning photos can be viewed online, or at an exhibition held at the NEC in Birmingham, UK from March 16-19 and at Xposure in Sharjah, UAE.
The-CNN-Wire
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