The latest winners of the Travel Photographer of the Year awards (TPOTY) have been announced, with the top prize and title going to Stefano Pensotti, a semi-pro photographer from Italy. His varied portfolio of eight images from around the world beat over 20,000 images from 142 countries. Pensotti also becomes the first Italian to take the top title since the awards launched in 2003.
Meanwhile, Young Travel Photographer of the Year 2018 is 14-year-old Isabella Smith from the USA, for her colourful portfolio of photographs taken in Chefchaouen, Morocco.
In the portfolio categories, Dutch photographer Marinka Masséus’s portfolio ‘Under the Same Sun’, raising awareness of the circumstances of people with albinism in Tanzania won of the Faces, People, Cultures category, while Best Single Image in this category went to Danny Yen Sin Wong (Malaysia) for his image of a young Suri boy in Kibish, Ethiopia.
The Natural World category award went to Spaniard Javier Herranz Casellas for his delicate, intimate portfolio depicting the Pita (Agave Americana) plant. French photographer Florent Mamelle’s shot of the Fuego volcano in Guatemala spurting lava under the starry night sky was awarded Best Single Image.
Slovenian photographer Matjaz Krivic’s diverse portfolio won the special eight-image ‘Travel’ category introduced to celebrate TPOTY’s 15th anniversary, with Philip Lee Harvey (UK) being awarded the prize for Best Single Image in this category with an image of a sand diver in Mali.
Hi Jian (China) came first in the Hot/Cold single-image category with a striking image of Tibetan pilgrims in the snow in Gannan, China, while British photographer Simon Morris’ picture of a faded, once-grand bedroom in Havana, Cuba won the Tranquillity single-image category.
The winning images from this year’s awards will be exhibited in the spring in a free-to-view outdoor exhibition at London Bridge City, opposite the Tower of London, before being shown at TPOTY exhibitions internationally. For more details and the full list of winners, see here.
