Sit Back and Enjoy The 2025 Landscape Photographer of the Year Winners

The results are in – and the 2025 International Landscape Photographer of the Year competition has once again delivered a spectacular visual feast. From icy tundras to storm-lit mountains, this year’s winning images remind us just how extraordinary Earth’s landscapes truly are.

[Related Reading: The Ultimate Guide to Landscape Photography]

Over 3,600 entries were submitted by photographers around the world, showcasing nature’s drama, serenity, and surreal beauty. The top prize for Photographer of the Year, awarded for a portfolio of four images, goes to J. Fritz Rumpf of the USA. His atmospheric and painterly compositions invite viewers to slow down and experience landscapes not just as places, but as moments suspended in time.

2025 International Landscape Photographer of the Year Overall Winner

For a single Photograph of the Year, Austria’s Lukas Trixl took first place with a stunning image of Mount Taranaki veiled in moody clouds and rich vegetation. It’s a single frame that evokes myth, majesty, and mystery – everything landscape photography does best.

Category Winners and Runner-Ups

Runner-ups are nothing less stunning than the winners, so we’re including them as well. Karol Nienartowicz from Poland and Joyce Bealer from the USA claimed second and third as Photographer of the Year, respectively.

As far as the Photograph of the Year category goes, Albert Dros from the Netherlands and Dave Drost from the USA were awarded second and third place.

Special awards and their winners included:

• Black & White Award – Torsten Pull (USA)
• Seascape Award – Jeroen Van Nieuwenhove (Iceland)
• Snow & Ice Award – Kung-Fu Li (Taiwan)
• Stormy Sky Award – Dennis Hualong Zhang (Armenia)
• Lone Tree Award – Benjamin Barakat (Switzerland)

These winners were selected from an incredibly high-caliber field. The judging panel noted a clear leap in the quality and creativity of work submitted this year. Only the Top 101 images made it into the official book, but even the next tier (Top 202+) was deemed exceptional. What I find interesting is that there are many vertically oriented images among the category winners and runner-ups. Landscapes are traditionally something we automatically shoot in… well, landscape format. But I personally love landscapes in portrait format, and I enjoyed seeing so many of them recognized as winning shots.

“When you look at the photographs in this book, ask yourself if your landscape photographs are really good enough to sit alongside?” Peter Eastway, the Chairman of Judges, wonders. “Maybe one or two are, but I know deep down that a lot of my favourite photographs wouldn’t make the grade.”

“It’s not that they aren’t ‘great’ in their own right or they are technically deficient, it’s just that the Top 101 landscape photographs in this book are better in one way or another: better technically, better aesthetically, or of a more exciting subject, location or event. Perhaps they are better in several ways – if I knew the ingredient that makes that
difference, I’d be a very smart person!

Fortunately, I’m not a judge, just an administrator and in this role, I feel I have seen a noticeable lift in the level of work work submitted – not just the Top 101, but the top 501. The work has been simply stellar.”

Winners share in a US $12,500 cash prize pool, and each receives a printed edition of the annual Awards book – a beautifully curated tribute to landscape photography at its highest level.

To explore all more information and the winning images, visit the International Landscape Photographer of the Year’s website. Don’t forget to download the 2025 Awards book, too!

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