Photography can communicate stories and emotions across languages, cultures, and borders, and the winners of the 2026 reFocus Color Photography Contest offer a striking reminder of its universal power. Bringing together photographers from around the world, the competition celebrates the expressive possibilities of color through extraordinary wildlife encounters, intimate portraits, dramatic landscapes, conceptual projects, and everyday scenes transformed by careful observation.
The reFocus Awards recognize professional and non-professional photographers in separate divisions. For this collection, we are focusing exclusively on winning images from the Professional division, selected across the contest’s categories. The only exception is Domestic Animals, which we recently explored in a separate Bored Panda post dedicated to the category’s memorable animal photography.
Scroll down to explore this selection of winning photographs from the 2026 contest, and be sure to vote for the images that impressed you most.
#21 “El Ultimo Vaquero En La Tierra” By Wiktor Franko
Overall Contest Winner, 3rd Place
Gold in the People Category, Professional Division
Gold in the People Category, Professional Division
“The photo was taken on a street in El Cotillo, Fuerteventura. Its minimalist strength lies in a simple composition. Bold color planes and geometric forms evoke Piet Mondrian’s iconic paintings, with their colorful squares and harmonious balance of form and color.”
Report
8points
#22 “Organized Chaos” By Alex Kittoe
Gold in the Street Category, Professional Division
“This photo aims to convey the strange order within an unexpected street scene, where geometry, color, and human movement turn a moment of chaos into something almost composed. No one was hurt.
Captured in Chicago on a Minolta X-700 with Portra 400 film.”
Report
8points
#23 “In Search Of The Sun” By Peter Lik
Nominee in the Landscapes Category, Professional Division
Report
8points
#24 “Silversword And The Milky Way” By Aaron Lynton
Bronze in the Nature Category, Professional Division
Report
8points
#25 “The Fragile White Kingdom” By Roberta Pagano
People's Vote Award in the Nature Category, Professional Division
Honorable Mention in the Nature Category
Nominee in the Wildlife Category
Nominee in the Travel Category
Honorable Mention in the Nature Category
Nominee in the Wildlife Category
Nominee in the Travel Category
“An Arctic paradise Svalbard Archipelago. The effects of decades of poor environmental policies are becoming increasingly clear. What once seemed distant is now tangible and real. It is increasingly evident that the world’s climate is warming and that the Arctic ecosystem is changing radically.”
Report
8points
#26 “By The Light Of The Moon” By Vicki Santello
Bronze in the Minimalism Category, Professional Division
People's Vote Award in the Minimalism Category, Professional Division
People's Vote Award in the Minimalism Category, Professional Division
Report
8points
#27 “High Dive” By L. Chaussee
Gold in the Film/Analog Category, Professional Division
“During the warm months, the pool is filled with Atlantic seawater and the high dive becomes an object of ascent and daring. In the off season, roped off and forbidden, it waits quietly for the return of swimmers and the arrival of summer.
Photographed on medium format film with a Rolleiflex 2.8F.”
Report
7points
#28 “Minimal Cargo” By Alireza Bagheri Sani
Gold in the Minimalism Category, Professional Division
“Minimal Cargo” transforms the harsh industrial environment of Tehran Customs into calm, minimalist compositions. Using mobile photography, I highlight geometric structures, subtle human presence, and the quiet balance hidden within an otherwise heavy mechanical space.”
Report
7points
#29 “Les Passages Gelés” By Cath Simard
People's Vote Award in the Conceptual Category, Professional Division
“This series reveals ice caves from Argentina, Canada, and Iceland, all of which have since disappeared. Reaching them required trekking miles through remote wilderness. From inside, their openings reveal the mysterious nature beyond, forming quiet passages between the cold chambers and the unknown.”
Report
7points
#30 “Red Chairs” By Renee Giffroy
Nominee in the Minimalism Category, Professional Division
Nominee in the Architecture Category, Professional Division
Nominee in the Architecture Category, Professional Division
“I was attracted by the red chairs and the shadows of the architecture in the image taken in an old monestary in Spain.”
Report
7points
#31 “Storm Clouds Of The Southern Plains” By Kelley Richens
Silver in the Landscapes Category, Professional Division
Report
7points
#32 “Import, Export” By Derry Ainsworth
Silver in the Aerial Category, Professional Division
Nominee in the Conceptual Category, Professional Division
Nominee in the Conceptual Category, Professional Division
“A single red truck drives down the center of a busy shipyard full of containers in Hong Kong.”
Report
7points
#33 “Varios Architecture” By Wilma Wijers Smeets
Bronze in the Architecture Category, Professional Division
Report
7points
#34 “Bleeding Blues - The Final Vision” By Cath Simard
Bronze in the Conceptual Category, Professional Division
“(Peru) Bleeding Blues is the culmination of a two-year pursuit to a remote red lake in the Peruvian Andes, first discovered on Google Earth. What began as a filmed expedition became a solitary return, where I spent six days alone at high altitude above the lake to create this work.”
Report
7points
#35 “Ocean Sensations” By Ysabela Coll
Gold in the Abstract Category, Professional Division
“An exploration of the ocean as a space of movement, transformation, and wonder. Layers of color and organic forms dissolve familiar references, inviting the viewer to move beyond recognition and into sensation. The work reflects the fluid and ever-changing nature of the underwater world.”
Report
6points
#36 “Keeping The Lights On” By Michael Rupp
Gold in the Conceptual Category, Professional Division
Silver in the Still Life Category, Professional Division
Silver in the Still Life Category, Professional Division
“Illegal dumping in Portugal. At four hidden sites. I gather abandoned household objects and rebuild four rooms from what was not wanted anymore. Once lit and photographed, these discarded things are seen again as useful, identifiable and as a home. It shows how humans abandon what they once loved.”
Report
6points
#37 “Invisible Portraits” By Olga Antanaitene
Gold in the Still Life Category, Professional Division
“Invisible Portraits presents still lifes as portraits. Books, instruments, vessels, and everyday objects become carriers of memory and human experience. Rather than depicting a person directly, the series explores the traces of presence preserved in the things we leave behind.”
Report
6points
#38 “The Hearth Of Tuscany” By Elena Pardini
Nominee in the Aerial Category, Professional Division
“A farm placed on Tuscany Hills that from above, it appears like an hearth.”
Report
6points
#39 “Salt And Stars” By Brian Hawks
People's Vote Award in the Landscapes Category, Professional Division
Honorable Mention in the Landscapes Category, Professional Division
Honorable Mention in the Landscapes Category, Professional Division
“A shallow mirror of water covers the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, USA, blending the sky and desert into an embrace of stars and saltwater touched by a veil of airglow.”
Report
6points
#40 “Cong Shuwen 2014-2025” By Tianqiutao Chen
Gold in the Portrait Category, Professional Division
“In 2014, I collaborated with a group of migrant children in Beijing to create portraits highlighting their harsh living conditions. More than a decade later, in 2025, I revisited the project by photographing the now-adult participants, who had since relocated to various urban centers across China.”
Report
4points
