Open Photographer of the Year Daniel Viñé Garcia’s The Sleeping Giant
The 17th Epson International Pano Awards
The 17th Epson International Pano Awards has announced its 2026 winners, with Spanish photographer Daniel Viñé Garcia named Open Photographer of the Year and Tomás Sánchez Ruiz, also of Spain, taking Amateur Photographer of the Year.
This year’s competition drew 4,084 entries from photographers in 93 countries, an increase of 19 percent on 2025. Entries divided into 2,122 in the Open competition and 1,962 in the Amateur competition, with the field including 680 entries in the new Aerial categories.
“Photographers at every level, from first-time entrants to established professionals, use the Pano Awards as a benchmark for their own work,” said Craig Heckenberg, Managing Director of Epson Australia and New Zealand. “The aerial category is a perfect example of why the competition has stayed relevant for 17 years. It responds to what photographers are actually doing and it gives the global industry a view of where the craft is heading next.”
That new category is the headline development of the 2026 awards. For 17 years the Pano Awards has celebrated the panoramic format and for 17 years entrants have asked for a dedicated aerial division.
Daniel Viñé Garcia took the top Open honour on the strength of a portfolio that spans the high Andes and the Argentine Puna. His winning image, The Sleeping Giant, was made at Parinacota Volcano in Chile, rising more than 6,300 metres and paired with the neighbouring Pomerape at over 6,200 metres.
“The original capture was a 360-degree aerial panorama made from 33 individual exposures,” Garcia said. “After one last burst of light, the landscape gradually took on magenta tones, wrapping the volcanoes and the high-altitude lakes in a particularly special atmosphere. I later refined the framing from the full panorama to concentrate the final composition on the volcanoes, the light and the shapes of the landscape.”
His work also earned places in the Open Nature and Landscape category with Cathedral of Starlight, a night panorama made at around 3,100 metres in the Argentine Puna and My Perfect Night, photographed on a salt flat in Catamarca at more than 3,300 metres.
Other key awards include The Epson Digital Art Prize which is decided by the executive team at Epson Australia from the top 50 entries in each category of the Open competition. In addition to their creativity, these entries must show excellence in digital post processing as well as exceptional photographic technique.
The Rugby Players, winner of The Epson Digital Art Prize 2026 shot by Preeti and Prashant Chacko
The 17th Epson International Pano Awards
The winner of The Epson Digital Art Prize 2026 was The Rugby Players shot by Preeti and Prashant Chacko (who entered as a couple from India) and who commented on their stunning image saying, “Southern white rhinos are, in their normal state, are surprisingly unthreatening – calm grazers who move around at a leisurely pace. One morning at Solio Game Reserve in Kenya we were photographing a group of eight rhinos with a few cattle egrets walking among them, a rare sighting in most other national parks. Something suddenly shifted and five of the rhinos broke into a run. We understood in that instant why a group of rhinos is called a crash. Neither of us has ever played rugby, but from the point of view of the egrets this is how we imagine a forward pack must look, heads down and all that weight already committed.”
Mikel Iraeta of Spain won the Open Nature and Landscape category with Double arch on Milford Sound, an image he describes as close to impossible to make. “Milford Sound is a place where it rains on average 300 days a year,” Iraeta said. “The day before I visited, the access road was closed due to snow avalanche danger. It is very difficult to have an entire clear night with no rain, no clouds, no moon and for all of this to coincide at the end of September when it is possible to capture the double arc of the Milky Way. The final image is the result of combining 107 different photographs.”
Xuecheng Liu of the United States won the Open Built Environment category with Center of the Cosmos, a stitched panorama of Times Square from above. “Times Square is one of the most photographed places in the world, so my challenge was to find a perspective that could make such a familiar place feel unfamiliar again,” Liu said. “I stitched together 25 frames to create an ultra-wide aerial panorama, with countless points of light resembling stars surrounding the centre of a galaxy.”
Francesco Dall’Olmo of Italy placed second in Open Aerial with Boreal Wings, photographed in the Lofoten Islands.
Wutimet Bunyasirisith of Thailand was named Southeast Asia Open Photographer of the Year for The Emerald Arch Over Lofoten, made at Skagsanden Beach in Norway.
“The Northern Lights flared up and curved perfectly around the mountain,” Bunyasirisith said. “The display was so vastly immense that even my 12mm ultra-wide lens couldn’t capture the entire scene in a single frame. My only choice was to shoot a panorama. The conditions that night were brutal, freezing cold, biting winds and I had to wade into the icy seawater to get the shot.”
Tomás Sánchez Ruiz of Spain claimed the Amateur Photographer of the Year title, winning the Amateur Nature and Landscape category with Double Arch Over Stokksnes in Iceland.
“On the night I took this photograph, the aurora forecast was not particularly promising,” Sánchez Ruiz said. “When I pulled back the curtain of our hotel room and saw a green glow in the sky, I knew this could be the night we had been waiting for. The black sand was completely covered in freshly fallen, untouched snow. And there I was, finally taking the photograph I had been waiting for, with a smile on my face.”
His Amateur Built Environment entry, Westminster Abbey, was also recognised. “As soon as I entered the chapel and saw its enormous stained-glass windows, the spectacular ribs of the vaulted ceiling and the flags lining both sides of the room, I knew I had to get my camera out,” he said.
In the Amateur Aerial category, Xuejun Long of China won with Journey of Life, made at Lake Magadi in Kenya. “As the freshwater evaporated, chemical deposits on the lakebed were exposed, forming lots of interconnected patterns,” Long said. “I was lucky to catch this moment and a flock of flamingos flew in, adding life and bringing a dreamy, magical scene from the sky.” Mildred Lai of Hong Kong placed second with The Devil’s Gaze.
Sebastián Cantos Navalon of Spain won Amateur Built Environment with Stairs from Earth to Heaven and placed second with Sphere, both photographed at the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia. “I used a wide-angle lens and created a composite image from eight shots, aiming for the curved lines of the staircase to guide the eye from the ground towards the sky,” he said.
Marcio Esteves Cabral of Brazil was named VR/360 Photographer of the Year for Diving in a blue dream, made at Cenote El Edén in Mexico, with Luis García Márquez of Spain placing second with Harvest of Light.
Max Terwindt of The Netherlands received The Curator’s Award for Antarctic Nights, made on the Antarctic Peninsula. “It was my first time there and the whole experience was truly magical,” Terwindt said. “We had a special license to fly our drones. As it never becomes dark in the Antarctic summer, the sunset slowly faded into the sunrise, so it went from golden hour to blue hour to golden hour again.”
Szabi Nemeth of Australia took Highest Scoring Vertical Image with Between Giants, photographed in the Indian Ocean off Mauritius and Vitaly Golovatyuk took Highest Scoring Gigapixel Image with X marks the spot in Shanghai. Garcia also collected the RAW Planet Award.
“In the 17-year history of The Epson Pano Awards, never has a request from entrants been stronger than the addition of a dedicated Aerial category,” said Pano Awards founder and curator David Evans. “The addition of a new Aerial category this year in both the Open and Amateur competitions was therefore expectedly popular, with some 680 Aerial entries. The aerial perspective opens up so much of the world above tripod level and the panoramic format lends itself beautifully to this way of seeing. I look forward to watching how this category will evolve over coming years, as technology enables photographers to push their own boundaries and limits.”
The Epson International Pano Awards is the world’s largest competition dedicated to panoramic photography and Epson Australia is the main sponsor alongside Epson Southeast Asia. Its reputation rests on a format that demands more from a photographer than almost any other.
To view the full gallery of 2026 winning and runner-up images go to: https://thepanoawards.com
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