Earth Photo announces its 2026 shortlist, featuring 160 powerful photographs and films by 33 outstanding photographers and filmmakers around the world.

Selected from 1,400 submissions by 200+ lens-based artists, this year’s shortlist is among the most diverse in the programme’s history, spanning documentary and fine art, drone photography and handmade printmaking, short film and long-exposure landscape: united by a commitment to stories capturing life on a changing planet.

The shortlisted images speak to the defining environmental and political stories of our time, from landscapes haunted by ICE detention centres, to salmon farms at ecological breaking point. Photographs span hidden geographies of industrial food production in Spain to melting Arctic coastlines in Northern Canada.

Now in its eighth year, Earth Photo is an international photography and film open call from the Royal Geographical Society, Parker Harris and Photoworks. It celebrates innovative visual storytelling that encourages conversations about our world and the challenges it faces.

The shortlisted works will be presented in the Earth Photo 2026 exhibition, at the Royal Geographical Society in London, and then touring the UK, as well as available to view online.

The photographs and films were selected by a jury of experts from across the worlds of photography, curation, geography and ecology:

• Peggy Sue Amison, Artistic Director and Curator, East Wing gallery (Qatar/UAE and Berlin)

• Shahidul Alam, Photographer, Curator, Activist & Director of the Chobi Mela Festival of Photography

• Emma Bowkett, Director of Photography, FT Weekend Magazine

• Serubiri Moses, Curator, Writer and Educator; Faculty, Hunter College and Bard College

• Yining He, Researcher and Curator of Visual Arts, China; Co-curator, 8th Singapore International Photography Festival

• Jury chaired and exhibitions curated by Louise Fedotov-Clements, Director of Photoworks; Co-Founder and Patron of FORMAT International Photography Festival

The Earth Photo 2026 exhibition will be held at the Royal Geographical Society, London, from 26 June to 22 July 2026, before touring to partner venues across the UK:

• National Trust Waddesdon, Buckinghamshire (27 June – 31 July 2026)

• Sidney Nolan Trust (4 July – 6 October 2026)

• Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire (20 July – 25 August 2026)

• Canwood Gallery, Hertfordshire (7 August – 20 September 2026)

• Chester Zoo, Chester (21 August – 27 September 2026)

• Mount Ephraim Gardens, Kent (26 August – 4 October 2026)

• Erddig Hall, Wales (5 September – 4 October 2026)

• Coleton Fishacre, Devon (12 September – 21 October 2026)

• National Trust Tyntesfield, North Somerset (3 October – 29 November 2026)

• Heligan Gardens, Cornwall (1 Feb 2027 – 28 Feb 2027)

Seak Lee, Frame, 2022, Cheongsong Ice Valley

Photographers:

Salman Fahad Alanazi (Saudi Arabia) \ K M Asad (Bangladesh) \ Antonio Avelar (Portugal) \ Anne-Marie Briscombe (United Kingdom) \ Marco Di Marco (Iceland) \ David Fleetham (Guam) \ Gonçalo Fonseca (Portugal) \ Marco Garro (Peru) \ Neal Haddaway (United Kingdom) \ Catherine Holmes (United Kingdom) \ Muhammad Hossain (Bangladesh) \ Ian Dawson (United Kingdom) \ Britta Jaschinski (United Kingdom) \ Seok Lee (South Korea) \ Garry Lotulung (Indonesia) \ Filbert Minja (Tanzania) \ Giacomo d'Orlando (Italy) \ Natalya Saprunova (France) \ Miguel Serrano Ruiz (Spain) \ Marni Shindelman (United States) \ Gina Soden (United Kingdom) \ Matteo Trevisan (Italy) \ Rebecca Wickham (Australia) \ Takeshi Yamamoto (Japan) \ Umberto Ferrero (Italy)

Filmmakers:

Zillah Bowes (United Kingdom) \ Lalith Ekanayake (Sri Lanka) \ Mohammad Rakibul Hasan (Bangladesh) \ Payal Kakkar (India) \ Janet Lees (United Kingdom) \ Gideon Mendel (United Kingdom) \ Camilo Parra (United Kingdom) \ Klaus Thymann (United Kingdom)

Note: Gideon Mendel, Mohammad Rakibul Hasan, Klaus Thymann, Lalith Ekanayake and Payal Kakkar are represented across both still and moving images.

Gideon Medel, Drowning World: Amjad Ali Laghari. 2022, Goth Bawal Khan Village, Sindh Province. Pakistan.

Exhibition Launch at The Royal Geographical Society

All Shortlisted photographers and filmmakers will be featured in a curated display at The Royal Geographical Society. Where the winners will be announced at a private view at the Royal Geographical Society on 2 July 2026 at an event hosted by naturalist Chris Packham