2022 Epson Pano Awards winners

The 2022 Epson International Pano awards winners have been announced, with Chinese photographer Jinyi He taking the Open Competition grand prize for his three entries, The Vein, Purple World and Rainbow Canyon.

His three images were captured in China’s autonomous territory, Xinjiang, with the three images showing a diverse series of landscapes featuring canyons, mountains and valleys.

‘It is very special for me to get recognised for the works shot in my childhood hometown Xinjiang, China,’ Jinyi said. ‘As a landscape photographer, I’m always passionate about exploring majestic Chinese landscapes rarely known to western photographers. I dedicate myself to capturing their precious but hidden beauty. I believe the most powerful photos come from one’s heart instead of one’s brain. Heartfelt feelings on the road always bring me different inspirations, perspectives and appreciations of our planet.’

This year the competition received 4129 entries from 1197 professional and amateur photographers in 98 countries. The prize pool amounted to a whopping $60K, with cash prizes along with Epson products such as the SureColor P7070 printer, SureColor P5070 printer and an EB-1795F ultra-slim projector.

The overall winner of the 2022 Amateur Competition is Florian Kriechbaumer, a German photographer based in the United Arab Emirates, for his three entries In Formation, The Confrontation and Sunrise in the Clouds.

‘I’m a passionate photographer and traveller originally from Germany, but have spent most of the last 15 years living in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where I have been working for various technology companies,’ Kriechbaumer said. ‘The country is an amazing playground for photography, which gave me the opportunity to slowly broaden my skill set over the years.

‘I try not to limit myself to one discipline, but experiment in many areas across cityscape, landscape, wildlife, drone, timelapse, timeblend, astro and everything in between. That probably means I’m not an expert in anything, but sometimes the magic happens at the intersection of domains and technologies and that’s where I strive to be.

‘This is my third year taking part in the Epson International Pano Awards, and I’m very grateful the jury found my submissions appealing – the quality of the contest has been so high over the years that it still feels a bit surreal to be a part of the winning images.’

The Epson Digital Art Prize was won by Spanish photographer, Juan Lopez Ruiz, for his image, Poison River.

‘This is an aerial view of the surroundings of the Riotinto mine, Huelva, Spain. This is a reservoir close to the mine where all the mine waste accumulates, it is an area of polymetallic massive sulphide concentration where copper, lead and zinc are extracted, as well as gold and silver, which contributes to a great variety of textures and colours in constant change, this makes it a unique place perfect for aerial photography.’

The Curator’s Award was won by German photographer, Judith Kuhn, for her entry Bernese Oberland.

‘Alps in the Bernese Oberland… [are] known among wildlife photographers for its ibex. A larger colony lives there, which has gotten used to the numerous walkers and shows little shyness,’ she said. ‘So I followed the call of the ibex to the Niederhorn. The landscape of the area is also not uninteresting (the triumvirate Mönch Eiger Jungfrau is directly opposite), but not a photographic hotspot.

‘Therefore, for weight reasons, I set out early in the morning for my photo tour armed only with a camera, telephoto lens and a few spare batteries. Landscape photography was not planned. At the Burgfeldstand, a neighboring summit, the view opened up to the north-east, hills and valleys staggered in the light haze in the backlight of the rising sun. A perspective that creates spatial depth and, fortunately for me, could only be effectively photographed with a telephoto lens. So I unexpectedly came across a wonderful landscape photo on my wildlife tour.’

View more winning photos here.