Winners of top travel photography competition named

From the exuberance of a community festival at a mud mosque in Mali to the solitude of life ‘off the grid’ in Wales, taking in both sweeping landscapes and the minutiae of an ant colony, these stunning images have been named the winners of a world-renowned photography competition.

The winners of the Travel Photographer Of The Year awards, which were announced Monday, give both armchair travellers and seasoned explorers a glimpse of the magnificence, beauty and poignancy of this planet and its inhabitants, the Daily Mail reported.

The vibrant, entertaining and sometimes thought-provoking selection, taking in both places that many of us will never travel to and familiar destinations, were captured by the hugely talented amateur and professional photographers who beat entrants from nearly 100 countries.
 

The top prize – the Cutty Sark Award for the Travel Photographer of the Year 2013 – was awarded to British photographer Timothy Allen for his black and white images of the mud mosque replastering festival and Dogon life in Mali, and his studies of individuals in Wales and Bhutan.
 

A long-time TPOTY entrant, who has been a category winner on a number of occasions, Mr Allen has now scooped the contest’s highest award, winning £5,000 plus a complete set of Cutty Sark's whiskies and bespoke, personalised Cutty Sark/TPOTY surfboard.


'As Timothy is both a whisky fan and a surfer, the prize is sure to be put to good use', said a spokesman for the awards.

Jonathan Rystrøm from Denmark was also celebrating after he was named Young Travel Photographer of the Year 2013.

The 14-year-old, who got into photography when his grandfather took him on a safari trip, stunned judges with his photograph of a woman using her mobile phone in front of the Rector's Palace in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
 

“Jonathan's willingness to experiment with movement and to use this well in his compositions is particularly impressive for one so young,” said the competition judges.

“At just 14 years old, he is third youngest photographer to win the award of Young Travel Photographer of the Year and only the second ever Danish winner of any category in the awards, following in the footsteps on Student award winner, Sophie Tondering, in 2003.

“If Jonathan continues to develop his keen eye and willingness to experiment with his photography then he has a bright future ahead of him.”

The 14 and under category was won by 10-year-old Patria Prasaysa from Indonesia, while 17-year-old Chase Guttman from the USA won the 15-18 age group.
 

In the portfolio sections, Jino Lee from Singapre won the Monochromal category, while the British-born Thailand-based photographer Gavin Gough took the top spot in Vanishing & Emerging cultures. Jasper Doest from the Netherlands, and Johnny Haglund from Norway shared top honours in Wild Stories with two sharply contrasting portfolios; one beautiful, the other gritty.

The New Talent award went to British medical student Tom Pepper, with the Vietnam-based American Justin Mott capturing the top prize in the single image category, Extraordinary.




There were two winners in the beginner’s category En Route – Merissa Quek from Singapore and Stuart Draper from the UK, while another British-based photographer James Morgan repeated his 2012 success in the short film category Travel Shorts by finishing on top in 2013.

The awards were judged by a hugely respected international panel of imaging experts, including photographers Eamonn McCabe, Nick Meers and Chris Weston, the editor of the German magazine FOTO and the photography director of Condé Nast Traveller.
 

The winning images and films can be seen on www.tpoty.com and will be displayed at a major exhibition at London’s Royal Geographical Society from July 11 until August 17 next year. The exhibition there in 2013 attracted almost 50,000 visitors.