Azim Khan Ronnie Wins International Aerial Photographer of the Year Award

Azim Khan Ronnie of Bangladesh has won the top prize in the second annual International Aerial Photographer of the Year competition, leading a global field of winners honored for striking imagery captured high above landscapes, seascapes, and urban centers worldwide.

Azim Khan Ronnie Claims Top Portfolio Honors

The international competition judged 1,587 entries from around the world without category divisions, enforcing a strict rule that bars AI-generated images. Azim Khan Ronnie secured the overall winner title for a portfolio featuring diverse scenes across multiple countries. Judges praised his cohesive storytelling, which captured a serene rower on Lake Zurich in Switzerland, dynamic human-bird interactions at Yamuna Ghat in Delhi, India, the bold geometric patterns of red chilies drying in Bogura, Bangladesh, and Hindu devotees gathering in Dhaka for Rakher Upobash to honor Baba Lokenath with incense and oil lamps.

The winning portfolio showcases agricultural and cultural rhythms from above. Thousands of bright red chili peppers are harvested in the hot sun before being sorted for delivery to spice companies in Sariakandi, Bogura, where more than 2,000 people work across roughly 100 chili farms. In Delhi, Siberian seagulls arrive in November and stay until mid-March, gathering at Yamuna Ghat where morning feeding activity draws photographers.

Vitaly Golovatyuk Wins Single-Image Aerial Photograph of the Year

Russian photographer and cinematographer Vitaly Golovatyuk won the Aerial Photograph of the Year award for a single image shot at Elk Park near Dongtai City in Zhejiang Province, China. The winning frame features a lone bird resting on a crystal-clear lake surrounded by vivid red vegetation, with the water reflecting the sky to create an illusion of suspended space.

Organizers who also run the International Landscape Photographer of the Year awards noted that the competition celebrates perspectives captured from drones, planes, helicopters, and balloons.

“Whether photographing mountains, cities, seascape or deserts, there is something very special about an aerial perspective that is simply enchanting.”
Competition Organizers, International Aerial Photographer of the Year

Organizers added that photographers do not have to be sitting in a plane or helicopter, noting they are equally receptive to images taken from tall buildings or mountains.

Second and Third Place Winners Capture Global Landscapes

Chin Leong Teo of Singapore earned second place as photographer of the year with multiple striking entries. His work captured a lone fisherman casting a radiant yellow net that bloomed across the water like liquid sunlight, Bali’s rice terraces cascading down hillsides in vivid green steps shaped by centuries of careful irrigation against a busy highway, a pedestrian crossing a central Tokyo traffic junction, and the Park Royal Hotel in Singapore.

Additional second-place recognition went to Sanghamitra Sarkar of India for documenting a gathering of Warkaris during Maharashtra’s Wari pilgrimage, where participants formed a circular pattern around a central palkhi carrying sacred padukas. Barbara Brown of Australia took third place for capturing magical tree patterns generated by heavy rains flooding the Sossusvlei Desert and Salt Works in Namibia. Kah-Wai Lin of the United States secured a third-place aerial photograph honor for capturing Yilki horses thundering across a dusty plateau at sunset in Cappadocia, central Turkey.

Special Awards Highlight Unique Terrains and Migrations

Special awards showcased diverse geographical formations and seasonal wildlife movements across continents. Chengming Liu of the United States captured the Diablo Range at its greenest after winter rains above the rolling hills of San Jose, California, at golden hour. A.J. Rich of the United States documented the sharp, steep, and layered hills in the Badlands of Utah.

Michiko Kimura captured the Arctic Pulse Sámi reindeer migration, documenting more than 2,000 reindeer flowing northward across Finnmark, Norway, guided by Sámi herders and ancient instinct in a seasonal movement reflecting a rhythm older than borders.