These amazing travel photographs will blow you away!

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Winners of Travel Photographer of the Year 2020 are announced - and there are some stunners!

Travel Photographer of the Year 2020
(Image credit: James Smart/www.tpoty.com)

From lockdown to landscape, the winners of the global 2020 Travel Photographer of the Year give us a fascinating view of our planet at a time when most of us have been stuck at home for much of the year.

Almost 25,000 images were submitted from photographers in 147 countries, with Vladimir Alekseev becoming TPOTY’s first-ever Russian overall winner. The winning shots – which can all be viewed in the Winners’ Gallery on tpoty.com - will go on display in Coal Drops Yard, King’s Cross, London, in May and in other venues, including Chester Cathedral, later in the year.
 
12-year-old Indigo Larmour from Ireland achieved the not inconsiderable feat of winning Young Travel Photographer of the Year for the second year running, with a beautifully composed, atmospheric black and white portfolio from the streets of Lahore, Pakistan.  

WINNER: ONE SHOT – COLORS OF LIFE Peter Walmsley, UK Bengaluru, Bangalore, India "You think you’ve visited busy markets before? You haven’t until you’ve visited Bengaluru. The flower market is absolutely chaotic! Dive in and you will be carried along with the flow of customers. Photographs in the middle of this melee are hard to achieve, but think a little laterally (well, upwards) and you can climb a couple of storeys and get this bird’s eye view of the scrum below". Nikon D800, 24-120mm lens, f/11, 0.6s, ISO 1200 (Image credit: Peter Walmsley/www.tpoty.com)

WINNER, BEST SINGLE IMAGE IN A TRAVEL PORTFOLIO Paul Sansome, UK Long Bien, Hanoi, Vietnam "I had to exercise extreme patience to achieve this shot at a very busy junction in Hanoi where traffic from left, right and behind me would constantly block the desired image I spent an hour before, as I had hoped, just a single bike drove past part of the world’s longes mosaic mural producing an image that I call ‘Green Energy’".  Canon 6D Mark II, 70-300mm lens, f/8, 1/4000 sec, ISO 800. (Image credit: Paul Sansome/www.tpoty.com)

WINNER: iTRAVELLED – PHONE/TABLET SINGLE IMAGE CATEGORY Azim Khan Ronnie, Bangladesh Dhaka, Bangladesh "Thousands of people come together to pray over several floors of one of the biggest mosques in the world". Huawei P30 Pro, f/2.2, 1.25 sec, ISO 400 (Image credit: Azim Khan Ronnie/www.tpoty.com)

WINNER: ONE SHOT – ISLANDS David Newton, UK  Taiwan "An outcrop of rock, battered by the waves, forms its own tiny island just off the coast of Taiwan". DJI Inspire with X3, f/4.5, 0.8 sec, ISO 100 (Image credit: David Newton/www.tpoty.com)

TRAVEL PORTFOLIO WINNER: Jordi Cohen, Spain Kannur, Kerala, India "Portrait of a boy during a Kalaripayattu training, a martial art originating in southern India". Canon 5D Mark III, 50mm lens, f/1.4, 1/200 sec, ISO 800 (Image credit: Jordi Cohen/www.tpoty.com)

WINNER: ONE SHOT – SOLITUDE Mark Anthony Agtay, Philippines Botolan, Zambales, Philippines "We were relaxing and observing the tide when the sunrise lit up the shore in a beautiful way". DJI FC2103, f/2.8, 1/240 sec, ISO 100 (Image credit: Mark Anthony Agtay/www.tpoty.com)

WINNER: ONE SHOT – CLOSE TO HOME Pier Luigi Dodi, Italy  Fidenza, Italy It was the beginning of autumn and one of the last days on which to take the advantage of being out in the park for some hours. My friend Giulia and her son were playing with soap bubbles. iPhone 11 Pro Max, f/2, 1/22s, ISO 32 (Image credit: Pier Luigi Dodi/www.tpoty.com)

Best Single Image in Nature, Sealife, Wildlife Portfolio Pavlos Evangelidis, Greece Bistro, Beqa Channel, Fiji "Don’t worry, the fish are fine! They’re pilot fish – or, to be precise in this case, Golden Trevallies. They help the shark navigate and keep clean in exchange for scraps and protection." Sony A6000, f/9, 1/125 sec, ISO 320 (Image credit: Pavlos Evangelidis/www.tpoty.com)

WINNER, BEST SINGLE IMAGE IN A LANDSCAPE 2020 & EARTH ELEMENTS PORTFOLIO James Smart, Australia Simla, Colorado, USA "This ‘drill bit’ type of tornado is a rare anti-cyclonic tornado, which happens in around 2% of tornadoes. It touched down in open farmland, narrowly missing a home near Simla, Colorado as it tore up the ground, gathering the soil giving it is brown color". Canon 5D Mark II, 70-200mm lens, f/4, 1/90 sec, ISO 100 (Image credit: James Smart/www.tpoty.com)

Winner: Best Single Image in a People of the World portfolio Eddy Verloes, Belgium "This is part of my series Losing Our Minds, that was taken at the beginning of the COVID crisis in 2020: a bizarre, but extremely fascinating period. This is a photo of ultra-Orthodox Jews who were enjoying their freedom in an unorthodox way in the storm (of their lives) and escaping the lockdown". Nikon D810, 24-70mm lens, f/9, 1/160 sec, ISO 200 (Image credit: Eddy Verloes/www.tpoty.com)

TPOTY founder Chris Coe said: “Travel photography in a global pandemic, with numerous travel bans, has been challenging to say the least, but travel photographers are a resourceful breed, as the latest set of winners is a testament to. Interestingly, when our worlds feel like they’ve shrunk, the list of nationalities winning TPOTY and its categories has grown, with our first overall winner from Russia and other winning entries from Syria, Egypt and the Philippines for the first time, taking the total number of nationalities who have featured amongst our winners over the years to 45".

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Chris George
Chris George

Chris George has worked on Digital Camera World since its launch in 2017. He has been writing about photography, mobile phones, video making and technology for over 30 years – and has edited numerous magazines including PhotoPlus, N-Photo, Digital Camera, Video Camera, and Professional Photography. 

His first serious camera was the iconic Olympus OM10, with which he won the title of Young Photographer of the Year - long before the advent of autofocus and memory cards. Today he uses a Nikon D800, a Fujifilm X-T1, a Sony A7, and his iPhone 15 Pro Max.

He has written about technology for countless publications and websites including The Sunday Times Magazine, The Daily Telegraph, Dorling Kindersley, What Cellphone, T3 and Techradar.