With a gorgeously composed set of almost mythical fantasy-styled images, Canadian photographer Adam Gibbs has taken the top prize in this years International Landscape Photographer of the Year Awards. In its fifth year this impressive competition reveals a hundred of the most spectacular landscape photographs from the past twelve months.
"Landscape photographers are a passionate lot!" explains Peter Eastway, chairman of the judges. "Some are passionate about discovering remote locations under exceptional light, while others are passionate about using their imagination to create landscapes of the mind."
The competition features two main awards, Photographer of the Year – based on a body of four images, and Photograph of the Year – the best single image. There are also special single awards that are different every year. For this competition those special categories were: Sunset/Sunrise. Abstract Aerial, Snow and Ice, Mist and Fog, and Exemplary Tree.
Winning the best single photograph of the year award was a beautiful mind-bending shot from Paul Marcellini entitled Autumnal Abstract. Marcellini's extraordinary shot presents a surreal combination of color tones achieved almost completely in-camera with minimal post-processing.
"I think art is art and there are no rules, but composite photographs in landscape and nature should be disclosed to the audience," says Marcellini. "Swapping skies or subject matter is deceptive and not true photography in my opinion."
The top 101 images of the year were chosen from 3000 entries by a jury of five experts. As you'll see in our gallery, the result is a gloriously diverse photographic collection – from classic panoramic shots to hauntingly abstract portraits of natural beauty.
