2025 PRIZE WINNERS
Created in 2018 by Forestry England, the Royal Geographical Society and Parker Harris, Earth Photo is a world-leading programme engaging with still and moving image makers to showcase the issues affecting the climate and life on our planet.
Out of over 1,582 entries, a judging panel made up of experts from the fields of photography, film, geography and environment selected the Earth Photo 2025 shortlist: 195 images and 8 videos by 40 photographers and filmmakers from around the world. A selection of outstanding photography and film projects were chosen as the Earth Photo 2025 award winners.
Earth Photo is now proud to announce its 2025 award winners:
Earth Photo 2025: Lorenzo Poli for Autophagy.
Royal Geographical Society - Climate of Change: Liam Man, for his series Carcass of the Ice Beast.
Forestry England - Forest Ecosystem: Mateo Borrero, for his photograph Water line.
Moving Image: Mohammad Rakibul Hasan and Fabeha Monir, for their film The Taste of Honey.
Sidney Nolan Trust Residency Prize: Shane Hynanfor his series Beneath | Beofhód.
David Wolf Kaye Future Potential Award - Photo: Issam Chorrib, for his photograph La Hepica – Consumed Living Spaces.
David Wolf Kaye Future Potential Award - Film: Miranda Barton, for her film Soft Fascination.
Photoworks Digital Residency: Shane Hynan, for his series Beneath | Beofhód.
New Scientist Editors Award, Mentoring with Tim Boddy, Picture Editor: Vivian Wan for Rotary Screw Taps.
New Scientist Editors Award, Mentoring with David Stock, Head of Editorial Video: Adam Sebire, for his film Sikorluppoq ('the sea ice is not good').
Liam Man, from the series Carcass of the Ice Beast. The Royal Geographical Society - Climate of Change Award.
The shortlisted and award-winning works are available to see in the Earth Photo exhibition, now open at the Royal Geographical Society, in London, until 20 August 2025, in seven Forestry England forests from 17 June 2025 to 19 March 2026, in 10 National Trust locations from 21 June to 23 November 2025, and Sidney Nolan Trust from 5 July to 27 September 2025 (please see full list of venues and dates below).
Earth Photo’s main objective is to reveal the narratives behind the pictures, encouraging conversations about our world, its peoples, environments, and the changing climate.
At the Private View, Earth Photo prizegiving, a keynote speech was given by Martin Hartley, Fellow of the RGS and professional photographer and ardent advocate for geographical science who has worked on over 20 polar expeditions.
The Earth Photo 2025 Award, worth £1,000, goes to Lorenzo Poli for his entry, Autophagy.
This impressive, black-and-white photograph was taken at the Chuquicamata mine in Chile, the second-largest open-pit copper mine in the world by excavated volume, and one of the deepest, plunging nearly 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) into the Earth.
Capturing an abandoned miners’ town and cemetery gradually being subsumed by mineral ore extraction, the image documents the “gridded impermanence of extractive cycles, overpowering life and death”, according to Lorenzo Poli.
Taken from above, the photograph shows the vastness of Chuquicamata, and the marks we make on the natural world.
The piece highlights the “unrelenting expansion of extractive endeavours”, telling a story of unsustainable mining practices fuelled by increased global demand for copper “driven by its role as a critical primary element in the transition to renewable energy”.
“In a world where the climate crisis often feels distant, overwhelming or abstract, filmmakers and photographers bring us face to face with its reality. They document rising waters, burning forests, and displaced lives, not as statistics, but as stories. They capture and translate the realities of environmental breakdown and the strength of those living through it. Within each edition of Earth Photo we see a compelling diversity of international projects using these powerful visual tools to share the beauty and tragedy of life on our planet. Through the lens, film and photography transforms climate change from an abstract threat into a visceral reality, capturing not only the damage, but the resilience of communities and ecosystems in the face of environmental crisis. As a juror, I’m continually struck by how the works confront us with the urgency of the climate challenges. They do more than document, they bear witness. In every frame, there is a call, not just to look, but to respond.”
Louise Fedotov-Clements, Director of Photoworks
The Royal Geographical Society - Climate of Change Award, worth £500 for a project that explores the impacts of climate change upon people, environments and wildlife, goes to Liam Man for his piece Carcass of the Ice Beast.
Carcass of the Ice Beast, Image 3 from The Icebreaker Project, is a photograph taken of the Rhone Glacier. In 2009, thermally reflective blankets were used to slow its melting, covering five acres to deflect infrared radiation.
“Today, these coverings hang in tatters, like the torn skin of a dying giant”, Liam Man explains. By anthropomorphising the glacier, the photographer invites us to “bear witness to the cryosphere’s beauty and its vulnerability”.
The piece acts as a “tribute to human effort and a sobering reminder of its limits. Despite the dedication of a few, their interventions could not halt the glacier’s retreat.” The message of the wounded glacial scene becomes clear: “climate change cannot be solved through isolated actions alone”.
“Earth Photo demonstrates how photography can engage with the pressing global challenges of our time. This year's winning images and videos are not only visually compelling but also serve as a powerful reminder of the climate and nature crises and the profound environmental and social impacts across the world. While some of the works evoke concern and urgency, others highlight human resilience and the capacity to adapt. Taken together, they show us the interconnectedness of people and planet and our reliance on the world around us.” says Joe Smith, Director of the Royal Geographical Society
“As the profound changes our planet is under come ever closer in our awareness and our lives, the winning images and films from this year’s Earth Photo show these shifts starkly, creatively and beautifully.
“Visitors to the nation’s forests will have a chance to see and respond to many of these deeply moving images as the exhibition tours the country. And set in the heart of woodlands and forests that we are caring for, each image shines a light on the diversity, fragility and interconnectedness of our world,”
Mike Seddon, Forestry England Chief Executive.
The Forestry England - Forest Ecosystem Award, worth £500, selected by Forestry England, goes to Mateo Borrero for Waterline.
In the Peruvian Amazon rainforest, the rainy season historically hits the region between April and May, marking the area’s trees with waterlines showing how high the flood waters rise annually.
In this image, a Ticuna man stands beside a vast 500-year-old Celiba tree in the rainforest, one which has clearly seen hundreds of rainy seasons, as denoted by its waterline at the man’s shoulders, which cuts the image into two distinct planes.
“This photograph, taken in May 2024, shows that the water level should be at its maximum; however, rainfall was scarce and, by the peak of the rainy season, non-existent.”, Mateo Borrero explained.
Borrero’s piece highlights the changes affecting Peruvian Amazonian communities, and the shared plight of those inhabiting the region.
The Earth Photo 2025 Moving Image Award, worth £500 goes to Mohammad Rakibul Hasan and Fabeha Monir, for their short film The Taste of Honey.
In the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest, stretching across India and Bangladesh, Shorbanu Khatun lives with a legacy of loss. After her husband was killed by a tiger, she became one of the region’s many "tiger widows": women marginalised by their communities and unjustly blamed for misfortune.
Climate change has compounded her struggle. Rising sea levels, saltwater intrusion, and increasingly violent cyclones have made farming nearly impossible and freshwater a scarcity. To support her children, Shorbanu enters the treacherous forest to harvest honey and Gol leaves—work that risks deadly encounters with wild animals, pirates, and financial ruin.
Through striking imagery and quiet intensity, The Taste of Honey reveals the everyday courage of women like Shorbanu. It is a story of resilience, sisterhood, and spiritual connection to the forest. As traditional ways of life disappear, the film speaks to the urgent need for climate justice and the protection of both ecosystems and the people who depend on them.
A photographer and a filmmaker aged 25 or under receive the David Wolf Kaye Future Potential Awards, a cash prize of £250 towards the cost of their next project, and mentoring by a leading photographer or filmmaker.
Issam Chorrib, a 24-year old from Morocco, is awarded the David Wolf Kaye Future Potential Award for his photograph La Hepica - Consumed Living Spaces.
Issam Chorrib’s image taken in Larache, Morocco, captures a turning point where nature and human impact collide: a forest once used for leisure and reflection, now consumed by fire. Part of his series La Hepica: Consumed Living Spaces, “the image underscores the increasing fragility of ecosystems in the face of climate change”, Issam Chorrib explained. Prolonged droughts and environmental mismanagement have made places like La Hepica increasingly vulnerable to wildfire.
“Once a sanctuary of biodiversity and calm, its charred remains now stand as a stark reminder of what we risk losing”. Chorrib’s work offers a visual reckoning from the rich, multi-layered scene, inviting viewers to confront humanity’s role in ecological degradation and calling for urgent, collective action to safeguard what remains.
The David Wolf Kaye Future Potential Award, awarded to a filmmaker aged 25 or under, goes to Miranda Barton for her work Soft Fascination. The prize includes £250 towards the cost of her next project and mentoring by a leading filmmaker.
Soft Fascination invites viewers into a state of gentle, immersive attention: what environmental psychologist Stephen Kaplan called “soft fascination.” Through underwater photography, Barton explores the emotional and sensory dimensions of being submerged, drawing on personal encounters with water across swimming pools, rivers in the South of France, and the beaches of Salcombe in South Devon, where this project began.
Using an Olympus TG-6, Barton captures the subtle transition from “rational calm to creative inspiration” that often occurs beneath the surface. The resulting images are infused with memory and sensation, reflecting both the visual poetry of underwater light and the known neurological benefits of immersion, from increased dopamine and serotonin to a sense of wellbeing. Her work not only reflects the underwater experience: according to Miranda Barton, it seeks to “communicate its restorative power to the viewer.”
The Photoworks Digital Residency Award worth £400 goes to Shane Hynan for his work Beneath | Beofhód (2018–present). Hynan will have the opportunity to work with Photoworks to present his work in a variety of ways online.
Hynan has also received the Sidney Nolan Trust Residency Prize, a two-week residency at Nolan’s former home, The Rodd.
An Irish term meaning “life beneath the sod’, Beneath | Beofhód, “evokes the deep-rooted reverence for the land in Celtic culture”, according to photographer Shane Hynan. Using a combination of “topographical mapping and metaphorical exploration”, Hynan’s project reflects on the legacy of industrial peat harvesting, and recent tensions between traditional turf cutting practices and the need to restore and protect fragile peatland ecosystems.
“Documenting the shift from large-scale extraction to conservation efforts and the establishment of renewable energy sites, the work reveals how communities are redefining their relationship with the bog. Beneath | Beofhód invites viewers to consider the bog not only as a living archive of history but as a vital site for climate action and cultural renewal in the present”.
The New Scientist Editors Award, for a photographer with the potential of an image spread in the Aperture section of the magazine, goes to Vivian Wan, who will also receive mentoring with Tim Boddy, Picture Editor, New Scientist.
On the Trinity River in Willow Creek, California, Yurok Tribal members and biologists Oshun O'Rourk and Yadao Inong, along with technicians, install rotary screw traps: specialised devices used to catch live fish for annual disease monitoring and to track migration patterns.
For centuries, the Klamath Basin has been the cultural and ecological heart of the Yurok Tribe, who identify as "Indians of the river and coast." The basin’s waters have long sustained fishing, eel hunting, and above all, the sacred salmon—central to Yurok spirituality, identity, and livelihood.
Yet decades of “colonization, land dispossession, and environmental degradation have severely impacted this once-thriving ecosystem.” The Yurok Tribal Fisheries Program leads efforts to restore the basin’s health, aiming to heal both land and community. Wan’s photographic work honours this process of reclamation and resilience, capturing the intersection of Indigenous knowledge, ecological science, and the enduring fight for justice and cultural survival.
The New Scientist Editors Award, for a filmmaker with the potential for an online video article goes to Adam Sebire, who will receive mentoring with David Stock, Head of Editorial Video, New Scientist.
In West Greenland, above the Arctic Circle at 70.7ºN, sea ice, once central to Inuit survival and culture, is disappearing at an alarming rate. Filmed in February and March 2024, Sikorluppoq documents a time of crisis, when “just one month of the winter season offered solid enough ice for traditional activities such as fishing, hunting, and dog-sledding.”
The film takes its name from the Kalaallisut word Sikorluppoq, meaning “the sea ice is bad”: too thin to be safe. Children from the Uummannaq Children’s Home trace this word into the snow with hunters’ tools, marking both a warning and a mourning. Where once dog-sleds connected isolated settlements across vast, frozen fjords, rising temperatures and encroaching waves now disrupt this way of life.
As the Arctic Ocean faces ice-free summers as early as 2030, Sikorluppoq bears witness to a community on the frontline of climate collapse, and asks whether the vital lifeline of winter sea ice can be saved for future generations.
Earth Photo 2025 showcases photos and videos that convey the world around us and will make viewers think differently, capturing nature, people, place and space, forests, the land and seascapes, and the varied impacts of, and adaptations to, climate change.
The photography and films in the Earth Photo 2025 exhibition were judged by:
Tim Boddy, Picture Editor at New Scientist
Vron Harris, Filmmaker and Lecturer in Film Production; and David Wolf Kaye Future Potential Award Judge and Mentor (moving image category)
Skinder Hundal, Cultural leader, consultant, curator, and speaker
Jae-hyun SEOK, Director of ArtSpace LUMOS. President of ONBIT Documentary in Korea. Director of Busan International Photo Festival
João Kulcsár, Director and founder of Foto Festival Paranapiacaba (Sao Paulo/Brazil)
Anne Nwakalor, The Founding Editor of No! Wahala Magazine, one of Africa’s first contemporary photography magazines dedicated to showcasing authentic visual stories told by African creatives
Wang Peiquan, Director of Lishui Photography Festival & Director of China Photographers Association, China
Arianna Rinaldo, Independent curator, photo consultant and freelance photo editor
Dagmar Seeland, UK correspondent of Stern magazine, editorial and photography consultant
Marissa Roth FRGS, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and David Wolf Kaye Future Potential Award Judge and Mentor (stills category)
Steven V-L Lee Founder/Director of the Kuala Lumpur International Photoawards (KLPA) / Co-founder of Exposure Plus Photo Festival in Malaysia
Fiona Shields, Head of Photography at The Guardian
David Stock FRGS, Head of Editorial Video at New Scientist
Hazel Stone, National Curator of Contemporary Art, Forestry England
Wang Xueke Isabella, Director of International Department of Lishui Photography Festival and Director of Collection Department of Lishui Photography Museum, China
Chaired by Louise Fedotov-Clements, Director of Photoworks, UK. Co-Founder and Patron of FORMAT International Photography Festival. Earth Photo Producer/Curator, Royal Geographical Society
The Earth Photo exhibition is now open at the Royal Geographical Society, in London, until 20 August 2025.
Visitors will be able to discover the shortlisted works outdoors at these Forestry England sites:
Bedgebury National Pinetum & Forest (17 June – 3 September 2025)
Grizedale Forest (17 June – 3 September 2025)
Moors Valley Country Park & Forest (17 June – 3 September 2025)
Wendover Woods (16 September – 8 December 2025)
Dalby Forest (17 October 2025 – 20 February 2026)
Alice Holt Forest (17 October 2025 – 20 February 2026)
Haldon Forest Park (17 October 2025 – 19 March 2026)
The exhibition will also tour Sidney Nolan Trust (5 July – 27 September 2025), and the following locations:
National Trust Ightham Mote (13 February – onwards 2026)
National Trust Basildon Park (21 June – 26 July 2025)
Waddesdon (25 June – 20 July 2025)
Lamport Hall Preservation (23 July – 28 August 2025)
Bowood House (25 July – 1 September 2025)
Syon Park (2 August – 13 September 2025)
National Trust Hardwick Hall (3 August – 31 August 2025)
National Trust Wallington (14 September – 3 November 2025)
National Trust Coleton Fishacre (16 September – 27 October 2025)
National Trust Anglesey Abbey (11 October – 23 November 2025)
The Earth Photo 2025 print partner is John E Wright & Co. Established in Nottingham in 1900, John E Wright & Co is a leading large format print supplier with branches nationwide.