reFocus 2025 Color Photography Winners Redefine What It Means to See in Full Spectrum

The 2025 reFocus Awards Color Photography Contest has once again set the bar sky-high, unveiling a breathtaking collection of winning images from photographers across 80 countries, their most diverse and competitive pool yet. Since its launch in 2022, reFocus has become a powerhouse for celebrating photography’s unrivalled ability to captivate, provoke, and inspire, and this year’s selections are no exception.

From intimate portraits pulsing with raw humanity to awe-inspiring aerial vistas that redefine perspective, the winning photographs are a masterclass in colour, composition, and narrative depth. Here are the winning images.

Overall Winners

Pro – 1st Place

Liam Man

Ring of Fire, and Ice

A “Ring of Fire” solar eclipse reaches annularity as two intrepid ice climbers summit the mighty Glacier Leones. A drone illuminates the ice’s textures and colours, battling fierce winds that whip up plumes of snow that burn in the sun’s rays.’

Pro – 2nd Place

Masoud Mirzaei
The Lake

Pro – 3rd Place

Octavio Campos Salles
Where Water Once Was
‘Dozens of caimans lie motionless in a shrinking mud pool, awaiting the return of the rains in the heart of the Pantanal at the peak of the dry season.’

Non Pro – 1st Place

Mohammed Alim
Colors of Devotion
‘A beautiful gathering of women in prayer, their colorful mukena creating a stunning pattern of faith and unity. Each color and design tells a story of devotion, capturing a peaceful moment of togetherness and spiritual grace.’

Non Pro – 2nd Place

Collin Blaney
Desert Oasis
‘A sunset adventure in an unusual place.’

Non Pro – 3rd Place

Sarah Wouters
The elephant herder
‘The mahout and his elephant at Ban Ta Klang village of Surin province, Thailand. The villagers raise elephants like a friend. They sleep under the same roof as the owner until the elephants become similar to being a part of the family. This has caused a strong bond between humans and the elephants.’

Category Gold Winners – Professional

Wildlife

Maddison Woollard
Incoming
‘This is my only capture of this adult Australian fur seal. The pups were curious and playful, this fella would float in the distance ignoring us. A younger seal was chasing and nibbling him, and that interaction sent him charging in my direction. Unveiling this remarkable, dynamic encounter.’

Abstract

Gaëtan Changeur
Liquid Soul n°7712 Extinctions
‘I create visual worlds blending abstraction and nature through fluid forms born from the interaction of water, pigments, and light. In a studio setting, I photograph these dreamlike landscapes, questioning the boundary between the natural and the artificial, the real and the imagined.’

Conceptual

Kristina Makeeva

Iranian girl
‘A woman is not decoration. A woman is not a shadow. A woman is not a ghost through which one can see the environment. She should not hide in the walls of buildings.’

Domestic Animals

Daniela Schnabel-Sahm
In the Light
‘When I saw this church, I knew I had to take photos there. The church has a light channel in front of its entrance. And I was lucky, the model fit perfectly with the stones of the church and during the shoot the sun came out and shone directly into her face.’

Fashion & Beauty

Daniil Slomakin
Luceatanima
‘The suit is tailored to give the figure a sculptural sharpness and add an air of mystery to the image. The background is flooded with a vast, almost bleached sun or diffuse light, making the model’s silhouette appear strikingly graphic and high-contrast against the gentle outlines of the mountains.’

Film/Analogue

William Mark Sommer
Blue Swallow
‘Seeing Route 66 change from boom to bust, season to year surviving the loss of the surroundings and the bypass of old routes, The Blue Swallow survives as a living part of history for the nostalgic traveler that seeks the roadside relics that convey of America’s passing culture.’

Landscapes

Manuela Palmberger
A quiet moment
‘A quiet moment captured in the geothermal area of Kerlingarfjöll, Iceland.’

Minimalism

Alessandro Tagliapietra
Nowhere
‘These photographs are part of a series taken in the northern part of the Venice lagoon, where I live. All images are taken with long exposures, sometimes with the tripod directly stuck in the underwater mud. I look forward to the foggy days to isolate the subjects as much as possible.

Nature

Navaneeth Unnikrishnan
Earth’s Galaxy
‘Beneath the earth lies a glowing realm, where Bioluminescent Glow Worms create a galaxy-like spectacle. This image captures the awe of exploration, blending the soft glow with the cave’s textures, highlighting nature’s fragile, otherworldly beauty in a moment of quiet wonder.’

People

Serkan Dogus
Chile pepper workers
‘Bangladeshi women contribute to the household economy by working in chile pepper factories during the summer.’

Photojournalism

Veronique De Viguerie
NOWHERE IS SAFE FOR THEM
‘Pakistan is expelling 1,5 millions of undocumented afghans, refugees in the country. These women fled Afghanistan when Talibans took over but now they are forcibly back to their country, registering at the border with Taliban authorities.’

Portrait

Jaimy Gail
Pink Niqab, 2020 De Tweede Sekse
‘This photo shows four women across three generations wearing a pink niqab. By replacing black with soft pink, the niqab sheds its oppressive image, symbolizing femininity and tenderness. The work challenges stereotypes, humanizes the garment, and sparks dialogue on cultural diversity and symbolism.’

Elijah Barnes
Crestline Queen

Still Life

Patti Gary
Rose Couture
‘Couture celebrates the elegance of aging. Dried roses, with petals curled into rich folds, resemble elaborate gowns. Their colors—deep magenta, blush, ochre, seafoam—reveal unexpected beauty. This series honors grace, resilience, and color in transformation.’

Street

Nikolay Schegolev
Two time
‘Past and present, light and cold shadow, man and woman… one morning I came to the train station and took this photo shortly before the departure of the retro train.’

Travel

Jacquie Matechuk
This Icecap is to Go
‘Gliding through a cathedral of ice, this moment in the Arctic feels suspended in time. But beneath the stillness lies urgency—these ancient giants, reflected in fleeting waters, remind us just how swiftly beauty can disappear.’

Underwater

Kirvan Baldassari
Underneath the surface
‘Underwater in French Polynesia, a surfer rides through the barrel of a wave. Nearby, another person floats, watching the moment unfold.’

The rest of the award winners and non-pro Gold winners can be seen on the reFocus Award website.

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