2022 Winners Gallery
Photo by Martin Broen98
Countries Represented
2160
Open Entries
1876
Amateur Entries
93
VR/360 Entries
4129
Overall Entries
1197
Photographers Entered
2022 Open Photographer of the Year
Jinyi He, China
The Vein, Xinjiang, China
I traveled to Xinjiang last year and took this photo in Dushanzi Grand Canyon, a geological wonder. For tens of millions of years, the melting snow water of Tianshan Glacier has torn open the chest of the vast Gobi like a Hummer, and formed this natural landscape under the movement of the earth’s crust and the erosion of wind and rain. ‘The Vein’ is stitched by 40 photos. I operated my drone to capture these 90 degrees aerial view photos at 40 appropriate points (5 rows and 8 columns) of the canyon in order to get whole canyon aerial view. Nature is an artist, and it reminds me of an abstract painting.
From Jinyi…
I’m deeply honoured to receive 2022 Epson Pano Award as Open Photographer of the Year. It is very special for me to get recognised for the works shot in my childhood hometown Xinjiang, China. As a landscape photographer, I’m always passionate about exploring majestic Chinese landscapes rarely known to western photographers. I dedicate myself to capturing their precious but hidden beauty. I believe the most powerful photos come from one’s heart instead of one’s brain. Heartfelt feelings on the road always bring me different inspirations, perspectives, and appreciations of our planet.
2022 Open Photographer of the Year
Jinyi He, China
Purple World, Xinjiang, China
May is the blooming season in Xinjiang. Before dawn a local herdsman brought us to this paradise. After I set up my tripod, I was waiting for the wind stop and the sun to rise. When the sky colour turned to purple and the snowy mountains were getting bright gradually, I began capturing this beautiful scenery with my Fuji GFX100s. Finally, I captured 48 photos to create this work. Each 4 photos were used in focus stacking in one frame, then I stitched these 12 images to get this one panorama photo.
2022 Open Photographer of the Year
Jinyi He, China
Rainbow Canyon, Tianshan, China
This photo was taken in Tianshan stone forest which is located in the west of the Tishan mountains. In the morning, a rainbow was hanging in the sky after rain and this stone forest sprang up like mushrooms under dark clouds. I was amazed by this beautiful scenery and set up my camera as the light went on the stone forest through these clouds.
Winner – Open – Nature / Landscape
(& overall winner in the Open competition)
Jinyi He, China
The Vein, Xinjiang, China
Winner – Open – Built Environment / Architecture
(& overall runner-up in the Open competition)
Peter Li, UK
Veles, Prague, Czech Republic
2022 Amateur Awards
2022 Amateur Photographer of the Year
Florian Kriechbaumer, UAE
In Formation, Kenya
The dried-up lake bed of Lake Amboseli in Kenya is home to a regular ritual for large elephant families: In the mornings, they cross from the forest areas on one side towards the swamp lands on the other, in search for water. With a bit of patience you can photograph their amazing formations as they walk in line, and if you’re brave enough you might be able to do so from the ground for that extra special perspective. The experience of observing the behavior of these magnificent creatures and how it reflects their social ties and emotions has been very impactful for me, and their plight for survival in a world that continues to hunt them for ivory is a topic that deserves more attention – hopefully this image will help.
From Florian…
I’m a passionate photographer and traveller originally from Germany, but have spent most of the last 15 years living in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where I have been working for various technology companies. The country is an amazing playground for photography, which gave me the opportunity to slowly broaden my skillset over the years. I try not to limit myself to one discipline, but experiment in many areas across cityscape, landscape, wildlife, drone, timelapse, timeblend, astro, and everything in between. That probably means I’m not an expert in anything, but sometimes the magic happens at the intersection of domains and technologies, and that’s where I strive to be. This is my third year taking part in the Epson Panorama Awards, and I’m very grateful the jury found my submissions appealing – the quality of the contest has been so high over the years that it still feels a bit surreal to be a part of the winning images.
2022 Amateur Photographer of the Year
Florian Kriechbaumer, UAE
The Confrontation, Dubai
A journey of patience led me to this image, as it took many scouting trips to identify this spot, and even more visits to the location to finally find clear skies adorned by clouds, while a pair of oryx was engaging in their territorial rivalry. The resulting photograph is meant to represent both the confrontation of the animals, but also the contrast of harsh urban shapes of Dubai, with the natural soft outlines of the dunes of the UAE desert.
2022 Amateur Photographer of the Year
Florian Kriechbaumer, UAE
Sunrise in the Clouds, Dubai
A panoramic view of Downtown Dubai, Business Bay, and the Sheikh Zayed Road skyline, as the beautiful blue hues of the morning light slowly turn orange and yellow from the rising sun in the east, illuminating the world’s tallest building while thick fog rolling in from the desert covers the ground, creating the illusion of a city in the clouds. While many images of this rare phenomenon exist by now, I’ve always been looking for a new angle and composition during my time in Dubai – through persistence and patience I’ve been able to achieve this goal through a panoramic photo from the roof of a skyscraper that’s a little bit set back from the rest of the skyline.
Winner – Amateur – Landscape / Nature
(& overall winner in the Amateur competition)
Florian Kriechbaumer, UAE
In Formation, Kenya
Winner – Amateur – Built Environment / Architecture
(& overall runner-up in the Amateur competition)
Carlos Solinis Camalich, Spain
Icelandic Bridge, South Iceland
2022 VR/360 Award
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2022 VR/360 Award Winner
Oleg Gaponyuk, Russia
Night diving with 100 nurse sharks, Maldives
Click and drag on the image for the 360 view
In wildlife animals usually tend to avoid encounters with people. But not in Alimatha. It is a small island in the Maldivian Vaavu atoll. You may not believe it, but in Alimatha divers play in the sand with nurse-sharks, swim alongside with them and hug sometimes. The reason for such behavior of these animals is that many years ago people started to feed them throwing food leftovers into the water. The sharks got used to this and stopped fearing people. Everyday you may find several boats with divers, preparing to go underwater. Night diving at Alimatha is one of the most unforgettable experiences at the Maldives and an important touring point of every dive safari. This panorama was taken in 2020. At that time at Alimatha it was quite usual to find several dozens and even 50-100 sharks along with sea rays. Today the government of the Maldives forbids the feeding of sea animals, but sharks, rays and other big fish still visit these places, though their amount has decreased significantly. I have performed more than ten diving at Alimatha for last years and have prepared for this technically complicated photo session. I had an assistant who was swimming above me with two flashlights 15 000 lumen each. This helped to lighten a large underwater space. But even in this case I had to use iso 6400.
2022 Epson Digital Art Prize
Juan López Ruiz, Spain
Poison River, Huelva, Spain
Aerial view of the surroundings of the Riotinto mine, Huelva, Spain. This is a reservoir close to the mine where all the mine waste accumulates, it is an area of polymetallic massive sulphide concentration where copper, lead and zinc are extracted, as well as gold and silver, which contributes to a great variety of textures and colours in constant change, this makes it a unique place perfect for aerial photography.
2022 Curators Award
Judith Kuhn, Germany
Bernese Oberland, Switzerland
Alps in the Bernese Oberland. It is known among wildlife photographers for its ibex. A larger colony lives there, which has gotten used to the numerous walkers and shows little shyness. So I followed the call of the ibex to the Niederhorn.
The landscape of the area is also not uninteresting (the triumvirate Mönch Eiger Jungfrau is directly opposite), but not a photographic hotspot. Therefore, for weight reasons, I set out early in the morning for my photo tour armed only with a camera, telephoto lens and a few spare batteries. Landscape photography was not planned.
At the Burgfeldstand, a neighboring summit, the view opened up to the north-east, hills and valleys staggered in the light haze in the backlight of the rising sun. A perspective that creates spatial depth and, fortunately for me, could only be effectively photographed with a telephoto lens. So I unexpectedly came across a wonderful landscape photo on my wildlife tour.
2022 Nikon Australia Award
Craig McGowan, Australia
Winter Mountains, New Zealand
Flying at 10,000’ over the Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park in New Zealand revealed snow covered mountain ranges for as far as the eye could see. Some mountains were in full sunshine. With other mountains having a heavy cloud base hanging over them obliterating the scene in front of me. The view much like the weather there was never constant. This shot was captured in a moment when the mountains could be viewed through broken clouds. Partial sunlight filtered through the cloud cover illuminating the landscape below.
2022 RAW Planet Award
Joshua Hermann, USA
Serenity Shores, USA
Fall comes late to the southern United States. It was a quiet Halloween morning when I paddled my kayak into the cypress trees to take this photo, and one of the first northerly cold fronts of the year had just rolled in. While fall was nearing its end in the rest of the US, the cypress leaves here had just started changing color. I looked along the shoreline and fog was beginning to lift off the water. Before the sun broke the tree tops and burned off the fog, I snapped a panoramic shot of a dense cypress filled shoreline on the side of a small backwater pond. The mix of greens, yellows, oranges, and reds at the beginning of the fall season adds a varied color palette to the swamp scenery.
2022 Special Awards
Highest Scoring Aerial Image
Jinyi He, China
The Vein, Xinjiang, China
Highest Scoring Smartphone Pano
William Lekki, USA
Camp for the Sunrise, Argentina
Highest Scoring Film Capture
Rainer Roth, Switzerland
Polychrome, London
Highest Scoring IAPP member
Elliot McGucken, USA
Death Valley National Park, USA
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Click and drag on the image for the 360 view
Highest Scoring IVRPA member in any category
Bin Sun, China
Metaverse, Shanghai
Highest Scoring Vertical Image
Peter Li, UK
Veles, Prague, Czech Republic
Highest Scoring Gigapixel Image
Jinyi He, China
Purple World, Xinjiang, China