Exposure One has announced the winners of its Photographer of the Year Awards 2026, bringing to an end the latest edition of one of the world’s major celebrations of black-and-white photography.
This year, the competition crowned an International Photographer of the Year from its professional entrants and an International Discovery of the Year from its amateur entrants.
Snagging the professional accolade was Joshua YeheNara, with a series of 8x10 large-format film frames of rocks seemingly floating through the air. The New York City-based photographer told Exposure One that he used “some specialized equipment and techniques” to create the illusionary effects.
In fact, YeheNara is an ultraspecialist photographer who not only shoots with, but restores and even modifies, classic, rare Deardorff large-format studio cameras.
“I am currently the only known photographer to own both an 8×20-inch and an 11×28-inch panoramic Deardorff studio camera,” he told the event organizers. “Fewer than 350 of these cameras were ever manufactured.”
Another New York State-based photographer, Ed Healy, took the overall amateur accolade at this year’s contest. Healy’s winning frame depicted a snowy, moody, yet endearing scene following a blizzard in Buffalo on Christmas Eve 2022.
Exposure One also announced “Gold” winners across 20 categories – again differentiating between professionals and amateurs.
In the “Aerial” category, Cristina Ford (US/professional) snapped a beautiful scene of waves retreating from a black-sand beach, while Francesco Calarota (Germany/amateur) captured a large ship resting alone in dark waters, held to the rocky shore by a single fragile line.
There were also noteworthy winners in the Event category. Los Angeles-based Scarlett Freund captured the joy of the Pride Festival in her city, winning the professional award.
Swiss photographer Nady Rizk took the amateur accolade, snapping a creative frame of a performer at the Montreal Jazz Festival in Canada, rendered on the LCD screen of another festival-goer’s camera.
According to Exposure One, the jury was made up of photography and arts professionals affiliated with institutions including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), Leica Gallery Los Angeles, Aperture, and the Art Gallery of Alberta.
To see all the winning images for this year’s Photographer of the Year Awards, head to the Exposure One website.
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