From Chili Fields to Sacred Rituals: The International Aerial Photographer of the Year 2026 Announced

The results are in for the International Aerial Photographer of the Year 2026. This year, the overall Photographer of the Year goes to a portfolio of at least four images, and the winner is France-based Azim Khan Ronnie of Bangladesh.

International Aerial Photographer of the Year 2026

Azim is a documentary and travel photographer with 11 years behind the camera and nearly two decades as a working journalist. His winning portfolio spans four locations: rowers on Lake Zurich in Switzerland, the chaotic choreography of people and birds at Yamuna Ghat in Delhi, chili peppers drying in geometric rows in Bogura, Bangladesh, and the Rakher Upobash ritual in Dhaka. The thread running through all of them is what aerial photography does best – turning a scene you think you know into something you’ve never quite seen before.

Azim’s gear of choice is the DJI Mavic 4 Pro and the DJI Mavic 3 Classic. He says that he always shoots in RAW, and his approach to post-processing is worth noting for anyone who’s wrestled with how much editing is too much.

As Azim points out, his “My post-processing philosophy is “based on enhancement rather than manipulation.”

“I believe editing should strengthen an image without altering its truth or narrative. Every adjustment is made with the goal of accurately reflecting the atmosphere, light and emotion I experienced when I pressed the shutter.

Chin Leong Teo from Singapore placed second in the Photographer of the Year category, and Barbara Brown from Australia took third place.

Single Image Prize

The Photograph of the Year is the single-image prize of the contest. This year, it went to Vitaly Golovatyuk from Russia. He is a cinematographer and photographer with over 15 years of experience, 11 of them focused on aerial work.

Vitaly took his winning shot at Elk Park near Dongtai City in China in November 2025. After several days working the location at sunrise and sunset, he captured a bird on a small lake surrounded by red grass. Look at the sky’s reflection, it is so clear it looks as though the bird is floating in mid-air rather than sitting on water!

“I prioritise capturing the ‘money shot’ in-camera,” Vitaly says, “treating editing in Lightroom and Photoshop as a supplementary step, rather than a crutch.”

Second place in the single-image category went to Sanghamitra Sarkar from India, third to Kah-Wai Lin from the USA (we’ve featured more of his amazing work here).

Special Subject Awards

Beyond the main prizes, four special subject awards went to Chengming Liu of the USA (Above Mountain), Aleksandra Wilk of Germany (Above Snow), Savadmon Avalachamveettil of Ireland (Above Water), and A.J. Rich of the USA for the Chairman’s Choice Award. These categories rotate each year to keep things interesting and keep entrants, judges, and audience on their toes.

The award was founded by Peter Eastway and David Evans. If that sounds that’s because they’re also the founders of the International Landscape Photographer of the Year. This year’s 1,587 aerial entries were whittled down to a Top 101. From there, we got the contest winners that truly are the cream of the crop.

If you just can’t get enough of these, the entire gallery of Top 101 images is available as a free eBook on the contest website.

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