See the World 2026: Meet the Winners

We asked our community to submit a favourite photo, video, or collection alongside a few words on how photography helps them see the world. The response spanned continents and disciplines: from film to drone, water to desert, solo travel to family history. Here are the ten winners, in their own words.

"At its simplest, to create a photograph requires me to go out and engage with the world. To be conscious of how the landscape casts light into my eyes, produces sounds that reach my ears, and forms the physical space that dictates how I move. When the shutter clicks, in that moment, the photograph captures this relationship; the world reaching out to me. In this way, photography is more than a way of seeing. It is the documentation of my active participation in a world that is, in turn, participating with me."

"Each photograph I chose here took me out of my separate self and dropped me directly into my heart, into the moment. For a brief instant, I didn't feel my body, I didn't feel an "I." The separation between me and what I was seeing disappeared. I was not the photographer looking at the photograph; I was the photograph itself.

What a life without a sense of "me." Isn't this creation? A creation that does not cling to the past, does not reach toward the future, but exists in the absolute innocence of the moment?

I often ask myself whether there is a way to bring such a state into ordinary life. Yet immediately, the question feels almost naive. The moment I try to cultivate it, I am already trying to possess it — turning something spontaneous into something I can achieve.

Perhaps that is why photography matters so much to me. It can take me away from myself. It asks me to look so completely that, for a moment, there is only looking.

Through my photographs, I try to offer that same possibility to whoever encounters them: not simply to look at an image, but to momentarily lose the distance between themselves and what they see. To feel one. One with the image. One with the moment. One with all of it."

“What I love most about filmmaking is its ability to capture the essence of an emotion. It’s not about creating visuals for the sake of beauty, but about using them to recreate a feeling or thoughts I once experienced — to let someone else feel the spirit of that moment through the images.”

"With photography I started to experience the world instead of just visiting it. It pushes me off-season, off-grid, toward moments that don't make the postcard. Chasing local festivals and remote places most tourists skip, earning the shot through effort or endurance rather than watching from a distance. Not sightseeing, but living it.”

"I see the world through water. My photography explores the natural world through water and light. Influenced by my fine art background, I take a painterly, textured approach to image making to reveal unseen, portal-like moments hidden within nature."

"I think for me, photography has always been a creative outlet that has allowed me to live a simple yet very fulfilling life. It's been a form of meditation and a way to connect with the world around me, it allows me to not only express myself but to also shine light on things I think are important. Over time, I've realised that photography isn't necessarily about documenting what a place looks like, but understanding how it feels to be there. The ocean in particular has taught me to be patient, comfortable with uncertainty, and aware of how small we are within the natural world. It has become the way I make sense of the world around me. It gives me somewhere beyond myself to focus, encourages curiosity, and has helped me form a much deeper connection with place. The more closely I look, the more I realise how much there is to notice."

"Photography helps me see the world, by forcing me to slow down. Shooting 35mm film on my Pentax K1000 is completely manual. Achieving composition, focus and exposure requires taking a breath and becoming entirely present in the current moment. This selection of images, shot during a 20-day all-women's crossing of remote north-west Svalbard, showcases an environment few people have the privilege to experience. It also illustrates Svalbard during a moment in time — it's unlikely to look the same ever again, as Svalbard is warming six to seven times faster than the global average. Average local temperatures have risen by roughly 4°C over the past 50 years, with winter spikes even higher. Photography helps me capture the beauty and fragility of the world's most remote corners. Shooting film stills in between capturing footage for a documentary film offered the opportunity to approach my subjects differently, and break up the more arduous ski days. Plus with film, there's no danger of my batteries dying."

Location: Svalbard

"Life is fleeting. No more so than in the desert country. Brief flourishes interspersed by harder times. Flows of water bringing life to the land before the dry inevitably sets in again. Photography helps to capture these moments. Moments of greens and golds carpeting the desert floor. Moments of floodwaters filling Australia's largest freshwater lake, Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre on Arabana and Dhirari country. Moments where waters from far-flung places over the continent meet and mix. The moments when large flocks of pelicans, terns and other waterbirds descend on the interior to breed and make the most of the good times. Flying above the landscape and capturing these scenes is a true joy to me. A unique perspective that is a true privilege to see and a treasure to photograph."

Location: Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, Australia

"A passion for art and visual storytelling has always been part of me, but everything truly began when I bought my first drone. Seeing the world from above inspired me to explore and create more. I'm naturally curious, and photography encourages me to seek out specific places, look beyond the obvious and discover perspectives I might never have considered before. Over time, this passion naturally expanded into both photography and videography, becoming my way of capturing landscapes, experiences and the emotions I feel while travelling."

“We live in a world that is already overflowing with images. Sometimes I ask myself what the point is in making more. There are more photographs than we could ever look at, more moments captured than we could ever experience. And still, I can’t stop taking pictures. There’s something about photography that keeps pulling me back. The way an image can hold a feeling, capture a fleeting moment, or show a place, a person or a sport from a perspective that might otherwise go unnoticed. So, what is photography for me? It’s a tool that has allowed me to meet people I would have otherwise never met, explore places I might never have seen, and experience different cultures. But from the very beginning, it has also been a creative outlet — a way to express myself, experiment with ideas and simply create.”

Explore this edition's photographers on Instagram: @roux.ko, @moha._.hamidi, @simonnikolaus_, @liuyhstreets, @rosie_feather_, @nickgreenphoto, @ameliabug, @dwhittaker99_photo, @lens.and.latitude, @dani.niederkofler.

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