Travel Photographer of the Year 2021: Ramadan feast and Sharjah camel race among winners

Annual global photography competition has announced its winners, from more than 20,000 submissions

Overall Winner – The Travel Photographer of the Year 2021. Fortunato Gatto, Italy. Denali National Park, Alaska, US. Photo: Fortunato Gatto / tpoty.com

Overall Winner – The Travel Photographer of the Year 2021. Fortunato Gatto, Italy. Denali National Park, Alaska, US. Photo: Fortunato Gatto / tpoty.com

Overall Winner – The Travel Photographer of the Year 2021. Fortunato Gatto, Italy. Denali National Park, Alaska, US. Photo: Fortunato Gatto / tpoty.com

Overall Winner – The Travel Photographer of the Year 2021. Fortunato Gatto, Italy. Denali National Park, Alaska, US. Photo: Fortunato Gatto / tpoty.com

Overall Winner – The Travel Photographer of the Year 2021. Fortunato Gatto, Italy. Eigg, Small Isles, Scotland. Photo: Fortunato Gatto / tpoty.com

Overall Winner – The Travel Photographer of the Year 2021. Fortunato Gatto, Italy. Eigg, Small Isles, Scotland. Photo: Fortunato Gatto / tpoty.com

Overall Winner – The Travel Photographer of the Year 2021. Fortunato Gatto, Italy. Eigg, Small Isles, Scotland. Photo: Fortunato Gatto / tpoty.com

Overall Winner – The Travel Photographer of the Year 2021. Fortunato Gatto, Italy. Eigg, Small Isles, Scotland. Photo: Fortunato Gatto / tpoty.com

Young Travel Photographer of the Year 2021. Winner – Jai Shet, US, age 18. Magnolia Ridge Park, Woodville, Texas, US. Photo: Jai Shet / tpoty.com

Young Travel Photographer of the Year 15-18. Winner – Tevin Kim, US, age 17. Mormon Row, Grand Teton National Park, Moose, Wyoming, US. Photo: Tevin Kim / tpoty.com

Young Photographer of the Year 14 Years and Under. Winner – Indigo Larmour, Ireland, age 13. Al Dhaid, Sharjah, UAE. Photo: Indigo Larmour / tpoty.com

Best 8 Portfolio. Winner – Alessandro Bergamini, Italy. Jodhpur, India. Photo: Alessandro Bergamini / tpoty.com

Landscape & Adventure Portfolio. Winner – Jie Fischer, US. Photo: Jie Fischer / tpoty.com

Living World Portfolio. Winner – Will Burrard-Lucas, UK. Laikipia County, Kenya. Photo: Will Burrard-Lucas / tpoty.com

People & Their Stories Portfolio. Winner – Beniamino Pisati, Italy. Alpe Caldenno, Sondrio, Lombardy, Italy. Photo: Beniamino Pisati / tpoty.com

One Shot – As Shot. Winner – Mouneb Taim, Syria. Idlib, Syria. Photo: Mouneb Taim / tpoty.com

One Shot – Green Planet. Winner – Johnny Haglund, Norway. Belem, Brazil. Photo: Johnny Haglund / tpoty.com

One Shot – Icons of Travel. Winner – Alain Schroeder, Belgium. Pyongyang, North Korea. Photo: Alain Schroeder / tpoty.com

iTravelled – Phone / Tablet Single Image. Winner – Viet Van Tran, Vietnam. Saigon, Vietnam. Photo: Viet Van Tran / tpoty.com

People's Choice Winner – Dani Salva, Spain. Verges, Catalonia, Spain. Photo: Dani Salva / tpoty.com

Living World Portfolio. Commended – Ngar Shun Victor Wong, Hong Kong. Tsang Tsui Cemetery, Tuen Mun, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR. Photo: Ngar Shun Victor Wong / tpoty.com

People & Their Stories Portfolio, Single Images. Winner – Trevor Cole, Ireland. Terekeka, South Sudan. Photo: Trevor Cole / tpoty.com

One Shot – Icons of Travel. Commended – James Rushworth, UK. Stone Henge, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England. Photo: James Rushworth / tpoty.com

Living World Portfolio. Runner Up – Anil Sud, Canada. Antarctica. Photo: Anil Sud / tpoty.com

Landscapes & Adventure Portfolio. Highly Commended – Yevhen Samuchenko, Ukraine. Kherson region, Ukraine. Photo: Yevhen Samuchenko / tpoty.com

Best 8 Portfolio. Runner Up – Trevor Cole, Ireland. Afar, Ethiopia. Photo: Trevor Cole / tpoty.com

People and Their Stories Portfolio. Highly Commended – Mouneb Taim, Syria. Aljiina, Syria. Photo: Mouneb Taim / tpoty.com

Young Travel Photographer of the Year 15-18. Runner Up – Nayana Rajesh, US, age 17. Mooringsport, Louisiana, US. Photo: Nayana Rajesh / tpoty.com

Landscapes & Adventure Portfolio, Single Images. Winner – Pally Learmond, UK. Haines, Alaska, US. Photo: Pally Learmond / tpoty.com

Best 8 Portfolio Category – Single Images. Winner – Alain Schroeder, Belgium. Uzgen, Kyrgyzstan. Photo: Alain Schroeder / tpoty.com

Best 8 Portfolio Category – Single Images. Special Mention – Vladimir Karamazov, Bulgaria. Reine, Lofoten archipelago, Norway. Photo: Vladimir Karamazov / tpoty.com

One Shot – Green Planet. Commended – Ewan Crosbie, UK. Cairngorms, Scotland. Photo: Ewan Crosbie / tpoty.com

Best 8 Portfolio. Runner Up – Trevor Cole, Ireland. Gougane Barra, County Cork, Ireland. Photo: Trevor Cole / tpoty.com

Living World Portfolio. Highly Commended – Jose Fragozo, Portugal. Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. Photo: Jose Fragozo / tpoty.com

Living World Portfolio, Single Images. Special Mention – Yaron Schmid, US. Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, Kenya. Photo: Yaron Schmid / tpoty.com

Best 8 Portfolio – Single Images. Special Mention – Marko Dimitrijevic, Switzerland. Ni'iinlii'njik (Fishing Branch) Territorial Park, Yukon, Canada. Photo: Marko Dimitrijevic / tpoty.com

Living World Portfolio. Highly Commended – Jose Fragozo, Portugal. Masai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. Photo: Jose Fragozo / tpoty.com

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.