“A few years ago we started this adventure in order to bind a uniquely beautiful and historic city like Siena with a photo festival and contest: the Siena International Photo Awards,” says competition founder Luca Venturi. “In these six years our project has become, year by year, a highly anticipated event appreciated worldwide”.
The contest covers most of the usual photography competition categories, including architecture, nature, animals and sport. A one-off themed category is also offered every year, and this time around it unsurprisingly focuses on Life in Lockdown during the global pandemic.
Experienced underwater photographer Greg Lecoeur took the overall Photographer of the Year prize with a shot titled Frozen Mobile Home. Captured in Antarctica, the beautiful snap offers a peek at the underwater habitats surrounding massive icebergs. A family of crabeater seals are seen sheltering among the massive pack ice.
Another mind bending undersea highlight took the top prize in the Beauty of Nature category. Tobias Friedrich’s spectacularly surreal image features a tiny diver in the distance underneath a massive iceberg in sub-zero Greenland waters. Second place in the nature category is another incredible lightning shot from Francisco Negroni capturing the clash between a volcanic eruption and a massive stormfront.
Other highlights include a disorientating look at burning embers streaming off a tree during a fire in California; a lone ice climber tackling the last remaining glacial ice on the crater of Mount Kilimanjaro; and a rare glimpse of two large mobula rays flying out of the ocean in the Sea of Cortez.
The Beauty of Nature, Kiskunsag National Park, Hungary. Bence Mate
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“Curiosity” – A young baboon looks thru a porthole. Ankit Kumar
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Take a look at our gallery of highlights from this year’s strong competition, and check out our previous highlights from the 2019 and 2018 contests.
Source: SIPA
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