The Exposure One Awards has announced the winners of its 2026 Photographers of the Year contest, bringing together some incredible black-and-white photography from around the world. This year’s competition received submissions from photographers in 87 countries, making it the organization’s largest contest to date.
The winning images show just how much can be captured through the black-and-white medium. A jury of photography and arts professionals selected the finalists, including experts from institutions such as SFMOMA, Leica Gallery Los Angeles, Aperture, and the Art Gallery of Alberta.
Scroll down to see some of this year's standout photographs, and join us in congratulating the talented photographers behind them!
#1 Non-Professional, Minimalism: Uncaged By David Stine

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others - Nelson Mandela.
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3points
#2 Professional, Travel:: The Night Market By Pascale Navarro

A woman and her cat near a night market in the streets of Ho Chi Minh city.
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2points
#3 Professional, Street: Wabi-Sabi By Simon Ellingworth

A visual response to the Japanese concept of Wabi-sabi. An aesthetic characterized by finding beauty in imperfection, impermanence, or simplicity. Conceptually, I capture fleeting fragments of impermanence with an aesthetic that embraces simplicity and imperfection.
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2points
#4 International Photographer Of The Year: Zen-Organic Photography For The Digital Age By Joshua Yehenara

8x10 B&W film, no Photoshop! To create this series of 20 photographs, I designed and built some specialized equipment, and using these equipments, along with special techniques, I created the illusion of floating rocks in the photos without the use of any digital tools, like photoshop or Lightroom.
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2points
#5 International Discovery Of The Year: After The Blizzard By Ed Healy

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2points
#6 Non-Professional, Portrait: First Born By Karen Moffatt-Mcleod

The struggle for dominance between twins as to who is the elder.
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2points
#7 Discovery Of The Year; Non-Professional, Wildlife: Toothsome By Corey Raffel

A Nile Crocodile resting in still, shallow water. The reptile's jaws are reflected in the water, making an almost perfect mirror image of its toothy mouth.
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2points
#8 Professional, Abstract: Infinite Pattern By Abdullah Abdulaziz

A hanging textile casts a rigid shadow across a rough wall, turning a domestic fragment into a study of weight, absence and light. Cloth, cord and plaster become a quiet geometry, where the smallest suspended object seems to hold the room in tension.
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1point
#9 Professional, Architecture: Echoing Heights By Alexandra Thannhäuser

This series plays with the rhythm of repeating architectural forms - the presence of birds in single images shifts the composition from a study of structure to a dialogue between scale and space.
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1point
#10 Professional, Landscapes: Built To Last By Cathy Vercoe

The oldest huts in Antarctica on Ridley Beach at Cape Adare built by the Norwegians for Borchgrevink’s expedition in 1899. The Living hut and the Store hut still stand as if built within the last ten years. The same cannot be said however for the hut to the right, built by the British for Scott's Terra Nova Expedition in 1911 which has not weathered the storms.
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1point
#11 Professional, Portrait: The Golden Silks By Christiaan Hart

Studio portrait with Zac Purton - record winning jockey in Hong Kong with over 2000 wins.
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1point
#12 Professional, Aerial: Written In Water By Christina Ford

Written in Water, waves inscribe fleeting patterns across black sand, only to erase and rewrite them. Viewed from above, the shoreline becomes an abstract field of light and darkness—a meditation on impermanence, rhythm, time, and nature’s endless cycle of creation and erasure.
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1point
#13 Professional, People: Growing Up Travelling: The Journey Continues By Jamie Johnson

For over 13 years, I have photographed Irish Traveller children as they grew from childhood into adulthood. Now the journey continues as I photograph their children—a new generation born into the same close-knit community, carrying forward its traditions, identity, and sense of family.
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1point
#14 Professional, Minimalism: Cliff Hanger By Justinus Sukotjo

Sawarna is on the South coast of Banten, West Java, Indonesia. It has a raw and unique coastline. Karang Bokor is one of the most dramatic cliff viewpoints in Sawarna with one tree hanging on the edge of the cliff that gives a gorgeous minimalist image for black and white photography.
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1point
#15 Professional, Domestic Animals: Wings Of Light By Longtao MA

Suspended for an instant against the darkness, a cockatiel opens its wings like a fan of light. The monochrome frame transforms a fleeting movement into a study of rhythm, grace, and quiet determination.
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1point
#16 Professional, Still Life: Hanging Shadow By Marcel Van Beek

A hanging textile casts a rigid shadow across a rough wall, turning a domestic fragment into a study of weight, absence and light. Cloth, cord and plaster become a quiet geometry, where the smallest suspended object seems to hold the room in tension.
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1point
#17 Professional, Wildlife : The Owl You Always See By Mathieu V Vanderstichele

The Owl You Always See. There was an owl, silent and black as the night, who seemed to be everywhere you looked. Sometimes on a branch, sometimes behind a window, sometimes shimmering in the water.
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1point
#18 Professional, Nature: Little Hitchhikers By Romona Robbins Reynolds

Tiny juvenile fish living inside the bell of a moon jellyfish.
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1point
#20 Non-Professional, Street: Cruisin Snoozer By William West

One afternoon I met a man on the Atlantic City, NJ, Boardwalk. He said his cat did tricks. He placed him on a skateboard and pushed him down the boardwalk. From the front with a low angle, and a 24mm lens, I made this film photograph. The man accidently walked by, and the cat shut his eyes.
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1point



