Winners Announced for 14th Annual iPhone Photography Awards

The winners of the 14th annual iPhone Photography Awards were announced today following submissions from thousands of photographers from all over the world.

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"Transylvanian Shepherds" photo shot by Istvan Kerekes

The recipient of the "Photographer of the Year Award" went to photojournalist Istvan Kerekes from Hungary for his photo "Transylvanian Shepherds." In the photo, shot on an iPhone 7, two rugged shepherds are traversing a snowy industrial area in the Romanian city of Târgu Mureș, each while carrying a lamb.

Other top winners included Sharan Shetty from India for his photo "Bonding," where a man and his horse commune in an empty landscape, and Dan Liu from China for his "A Walk on Mars" photo of an astronaut traversing a desolate Martian-esque landscape. "Bonding" was shot with an iPhone X and "A Walk on Mars" was shot with an iPhone 11 Pro Max.

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"Bonding" (top) and "A Walk on Mars" (bottom) shot by Sharan Shetty and Dan Liu respectively

Top-three winners in an additional 17 categories were awarded to photographers from almost every corner of the world, including Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, China, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Israel, the Netherlands, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

We've highlighted a few of the winning photos here and the full gallery can be viewed on the iPhone Photography Awards website.

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Top Rated Comments

maxolson Avatar
51 months ago
Proving yet again that your years old phone is more than capable of producing evocative images. We're inundated with media telling us we need the latest and greatest: sharper lenses, higher megapixel count etc. When it all just comes down to composition, light, subject and editing– just like it always has. What a great collection of images.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
JWiLL1988 Avatar
51 months ago

To be honest, those are three boring photos. I’m at a loss to understand how they won anything. Maybe the people who voted for them have no clue about photography are what makes a good award winning photograph. They are all boring and dull.
You could’ve been explained your photography ignorance in less words.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
citysnaps Avatar
51 months ago

Proving yet again that your years old phone is more than capable of producing evocative images. We're inundated with media telling us we need the latest and greatest: sharper lenses, higher megapixel count etc. When it all just comes down to composition, light, subject and editing– just like it always has. What a great collection of images.
Amen to that! I have images from an iPhone 5s and 6+ that still stand up.

Images that are powerful and release evocative narratives have little to do with the camera/device that recorded them. The first two photos up above are outstanding examples of that.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
maxolson Avatar
51 months ago
With such hard-hitting criticism as 'they are boring and dull', I doubt you'd make much of a judge.


To be honest, those are three boring photos. I’m at a loss to understand how they won anything. Maybe the people who voted for them have no clue about photography are what makes a good award winning photograph. They are all boring and dull.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Spacetime Anomaly Avatar
51 months ago
Transylvanian Shepherds are my favourite death metal band.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tedwill Avatar
51 months ago
As much as I try to capture great images on my Leica, I get more "keepers" from the camera that's with me and that tends to be my iPhone. These are all great photos by the way. But yes, iPhones are limited by the tiny sensors compared to full frame and medium format cameras, but it's hard to fit a Hasselblad in my back pocket! ?
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)