40 Stunning Photographs of Nature, Up Close and Personal
The breathtaking results of this year’s Close-Up Photographer of the Year competition
The winners of the second annual Close-Up Photographer of the Year competition were chosen from over 6,500 submissions from 52 different countries. The competition seeks to reward the very best close-up, macro, and micro photographs that “help us see the world anew,” and this year it awarded prizes in multiple categories, including “Animals,” “Insects,” “Plants and Fungi,” “Micro,” “Intimate Landscape,” and “Young.”
The overall winner was a photograph by French marine molecular ecology professor Galice Hoarau, who captured a stunning image of eel larva near the Indonesian island of Lembeh during a blackwater dive. Each of the featured images uses close-up photography to show the natural world in a new light, uncovering the hidden beauty of plants, animals, and natural phenomena that are often ignored or neglected. The following photographs are selected from among the top 100 contest winners.
“Running on Water” by Svetlana Ivanenko
Finalist, “Animals”
