Images of a Ramadan breakfast amid the devastation of a war-torn Syrian town and a camel race in Sharjah are among the winning shots from the 2021 Travel Photographer of the Year awards.
More than 20,000 images were submitted from 150 different countries for its 2021 competition of the annual awards.
Also among the winning entries were abstract images of the "paintings" created by the sand and tides in the Scottish Hebrides, a hare curled in a ball of ice and snow, and a "ghost leopard" apparently merging with the stars.
Look through the gallery above to see the winning images.
The winning shots will go on display at a free outdoor exhibition in London’s Granary Square near King’s Cross and St Pancras stations, in April and May.
The overall winner – the Travel Photographer of the Year 2021 – is Fortunato Gatto. The Italian photographer, who has lived in Scotland since 2007, submitted a series of detailed abstract images of his adopted home country, showing patterns in the sand in the Hebrides.
In the Young Travel Photographer of the Year category, two teenagers from the US impressed judges. Jai Shet, 18, won with a series of forest images capturing the seasons, while Tevin Kim, 16, won the 15-18 Year category for images of homes and barns in Mormon Row, Wyoming.
Indigo Larmour, 13, from Ireland, features in the Young Travel Photographer of the Year roll of honour for the third year in a row, this time taking top honours in the 14 and Under category with a dynamic portfolio capturing camel racing in Sharjah.
“The last two years have been tough for everyone and opportunities for travel photographers to shoot new imagery have been limited,” said the awards’ founder, Chris Coe. “Despite this, TPOTY has managed to keep attracting great imagery and we have kept our exhibitions running in safe outdoor spaces. The winning images and those received from all entrants are testament to the tenacity, creativity and ingenuity of travelling photographers. 2022 is TPOTY’s 20th award and we look forward to celebrating even more of the best travel-related photography from around the world.”
Italian photographer Alessandro Bergamini won the Best 8 portfolio category with eight images offering insight into the lives and communities of his subjects in Afghanistan, China, India, Myanmar and Russia. A black-and-white image of hundreds of men on horseback fiercely competing to win a game of "dead goat polo" in Kyrgyzstan, taken by Belgian Alain Schroeder, was voted the Best Single Image winner of the Best 8 category.
US photographer Jie Fischer was the winner of the Landscape & Adventure category with a colourful portfolio of flamingos over the coloured waters of Lake Magadi in Kenya. Professional ski photographer Pally Learmond, from the UK, won the Best Single Image award with his shot of a freeskier on the Dirty Needle mountain, Alaska.
The Living World category was won by British photographer Will Burrard-Lucas, using his self-developed Camtraptions camera trap system to capture images of leopards – including rare melanistic leopards – at night in Kenya. The Best Single Image award in this category went to Portuguese photographer Jose Fragozo, who captured the precise moment a hippo opened its eye as it rose from a mud pool.
In the People & Their Stories category, Italian photographer Beniamino Pisati won with his black-and-white portfolio documenting the lives of milk and cheese producers in the mountains of Lombardy, while Irish photographer Trevor Cole received the Best Single Image award for his unusual portrait of a young cattle herder in South Sudan.
The winning image in the People’s Choice category, chosen from 10,419 public votes, is Spanish photographer Dani Salva, whose image shows preparations for the dance of death in Verges, Spain.
