In an era dominated by hyper-saturated filters, composite image-stacking tricks, and generative artificial intelligence, the boundaries of what constitutes a real photograph have grown increasingly blurred. Yet, a powerful counter-movement is championing an unyielding commitment to realism. The Natural Landscape Photography Awards (NLPA) has officially announced its winners for its sixth annual competition, serving as a masterclass in authenticity, restraint, and deep fieldcraft.
Drawing an impressive 11,929 entries from 1,086 photographers spanning 52 countries, the 2025 competition proved that the appetite for honest, untouched nature photography is stronger than ever. Following a rigorous evaluation process that reduced the field to 2,558 photos and 88 projects, only the finest practitioners of the craft emerged victorious—each verified by unedited RAW files to ensure absolute integrity.
Main Facts: The Ethos of Realism
The core principle of the Natural Landscape Photography Awards is as simple as it is strict: the integrity of the subject must be maintained.
While many modern photography contests encourage post-processing techniques that alter the reality of a scene, the NLPA enforces a rigid rulebook designed to protect the truth of the natural world. According to the organization’s guidelines, a viewer familiar with a given landscape should never feel deceived upon viewing the original scene and the photographer’s raw file.
Permitted Techniques: Standard foundational editing—such as focus stacking and panoramic image stitching—is acceptable. Film photography is also celebrated and fully welcome.
Prohibited Techniques: The introduction of foreign elements via digital compositing is strictly banned. Generative AI tools are entirely barred. Even classic darkroom or digital adjustments like dodging, which artificially introduces light that was not physically present at the moment of capture, can result in immediate disqualification.
The Verification Protocol: To ensure compliance, every digital photograph that advances past the initial judging phases must be backed by original RAW files, subjecting the work to forensic-level scrutiny.
This uncompromising stance sets the NLPA apart in contemporary photography, transforming the competition into a sanctuary for purists who brave the elements to capture reality precisely as it unfolds.
Chronology: From Fieldwork to the Global Stage
The path to the 2025 NLPA winners’ circle spans months of endurance in the wild, meticulous post-capture verification, and global expert panel evaluations.
The Capture Phase (2024–2025): Photographers worldwide traversed remote mountain passes, frozen polar environments, and quiet local woodlands. For overall winner Lukas Furlan, a critical portion of his portfolio was born during his very first solo trip through Spain, supplemented by expeditions in the Dolomites and around his home base of Vienna.
The Submission Window: When submissions closed, the competition had amassed 11,929 entries. The sheer volume highlighted the growing global community of landscape photographers who reject artificial manipulation.
The RAW Verification Stage: Judges filtered through the massive pool down to 2,558 individual photos and 88 comprehensive projects. At this critical juncture, photographers submitted their original RAW files, culling entries that failed to meet the strict ethical guidelines of natural processing.
The Final Judgments and Announcement: Following extensive peer and expert review across more than a dozen distinct categories—ranging from Grand Landscapes to Fungi and Lichens—the final winners were crowned in September 2025, setting a new benchmark for ethical nature documentation.
Supporting Data and Major Winners
The 2025 competition distributed top honors across several prestigious categories, recognizing both single-image excellence and overarching long-term portfolios.
Photographer of the Year: Lukas Furlan
Austrian-based photographer Lukas Furlan secured the ultimate title of Photographer of the Year, improving upon his impressive runner-up finish from the previous year. Furlan’s winning portfolio is characterized by its remarkable diversity, bridging the gap between sweeping, majestic mountain vistas and intimate macro captures of delicate ice formations.
"I’m deeply honored. It’s kind of a déjà vu also for me, because I was runner-up last year. I am a bit speechless, and I appreciate it. Thank you so much," Furlan shared. "A big part of my portfolio came from a solo trip, my very first solo trip from last year, in Spain. The rest of it is around Vienna where I currently live and, of course, the Dolomites. The last few years, I tried to get more personal with it to avoid the main viewpoints and also to keep an eye out for the smaller details there."
Photograph of the Year: Abraham Saikley
While Furlan captured the hearts of the judges with his cohesive portfolio, Abraham Saikley claimed the individual Photograph of the Year award. Saikley’s winning masterwork depicts a jagged, dramatic mountain range under a brooding, cloud-filled sky. Golden rays of sunlight slice through the gloom, illuminating the sharp, snow-dusted granite peaks in a breathtaking display of raw atmospheric theater.
Projects Winner: Gabriel Stankiewicz
In the Projects category—which evaluates cohesive bodies of work centered around a single subject or theme—Gabriel Stankiewicz took home the top prize for his extensive visual exploration of pine forests.
Stankiewicz’s journey reflects a poetic irony. Growing up amidst the flat, seemingly mundane landscapes of Central Europe, he initially dismissed local pine forests as "unphotogenic." It was only after traveling across the continent in search of dramatic waterfalls and towering alpine peaks that he realized the recurring protagonist in his visual subconscious was the humble pine tree. Spanning Norway, the Canary Islands, and Scotland, his winning series is a testament to the endurance of trees that often outlive the photographers who capture them.
Category Highlights
The competition also highlighted excellence across twelve specialized categories:
Grand Landscape Winner: Xavier Lequarre (capturing a pale, shallow lake nestled among arid hills under heavy skies)
Intimate Landscape Winner: Hiroyuki Tsuchiya (featuring mesmerizing long-exposure water movements)
Abstract Landscape Winner: Vincenzo Mazza (showcasing aerial patterns of debris and deep glacial crevasses)
Black and White Winner: Lynn Fergusson
Platinum / Palladium Winner: Julian Baird
Multiple Exposure and ICM Winner: Julian Lozinski
Night Winner: Shane Turgeon (depicting a winding glacier beneath a vibrant Milky Way)
Mountains Winner: Benjamin Maze
Fungi and Lichens Winner: Jason Pettit (highlighting glossy orange mushrooms within weathered bark)
Waterscapes Winner: Annette Cuthbertson
Common Places Winner: Matt Redfern
Frozen Worlds Winner: Tom Putt (capturing rare pancake ice from an aerial perspective)
Official Responses and Industry Perspectives
The response from the photographic community regarding the NLPA’s stringent guidelines has been overwhelmingly positive. As the photographic landscape experiences a seismic shift driven by the democratization—and subsequent saturation—of generative AI tools, authentic field craft has become a rare and highly prized commodity.
Organizers emphasize that the competition is not intended to police artistic expression, but rather to establish a transparent distinction within the medium. While composite artistry and digital paintings have their own valid spaces within the broader art world, nature photography—in the eyes of the NLPA—carries a journalistic and documentary responsibility to the Earth.
By demanding that every winning image reflect a scene as it physically existed before the camera lens, the NLPA reinforces a deep sense of trust between the creator and the audience. When viewers gaze upon Lukas Furlan’s crystalline ice or Abraham Saikley’s sunlit granite summits, they are looking at real moments snatched from the wilderness through patience, endurance, and technical skill alone.
Implications: The Future of Authentic Nature Photography
The immense popularity of the 2025 Natural Landscape Photography Awards—attracting nearly 12,000 entries—signals a profound cultural pushback against digital fabrication.
As artificial intelligence makes it trivially easy to generate flawless, dramatic landscapes with a few text prompts, the value of physical authenticity is skyrocketing. Audiences are no longer easily impressed by impossible composites or hyper-manipulated skies; instead, they yearn for the genuine emotional resonance of a photographer who stood in freezing winds at 3:00 AM, waiting for natural light to break over a ridge.
Furthermore, competitions like the NLPA play a crucial role in conservation narratives. When nature photography is anchored in truth, it serves as an honest visual record of our planet’s changing ecosystems. By celebrating unvarnished realities—from melting glaciers to resilient pine forests—these photographers document the Earth not as we wish it could be altered, but as it truly is, demanding our attention, our respect, and our protection.
