The winners of the 2022 Epson International Pano awards have been announced and the overall winner of the 2022 Open Competition was Jinyi He from the China with three entries, ‘The Vein', ‘Purple World' and ‘Rainbow Canyon'.
Jinyi said, “I’m deeply honoured to receive 2022 Epson Pano Award as Open Photographer of the Year. It is very special for me to get recognised for the works shot in my childhood hometown Xinjiang, China. 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.”
In describing ‘The Vein’, Jinyi said, “I travelled to Xinjiang last year and took this photo in Dushanzi Grand Canyon, a geological wonder. For tens of millions of years, the melting snow water of Tianshan Glacier has torn open the chest of the vast Gobi like a Hummer and formed this natural landscape under the movement of the earth's crust and the erosion of wind and rain. 'The Vein' is stitched by 40 photos. I operated my drone to capture these 90 degrees aerial view photos at 40 appropriate points (5 rows and 8 columns) of the canyon in order to get whole canyon aerial view. Nature is an artist and it reminds me of an abstract painting.”
The Epson International Pano Awards showcases the work of panoramic photographers worldwide and continues to be the largest global competition for panoramic photography.
Epson Australia MD, Craig Heckenberg, said, "Every year we are amazed by the amazing standard, quality and level of excellence in every one of the Pano Awards entries and this year is no different. The awards connect photographers of all levels and from all walks of life through their creative passion. Epson is not only delighted to be a long-term sponsor of these awards, but we are a very proud one too.”
This year the competition received 4,129 entries from 1,197 professional and amateur photographers in 98 countries - all of whom were competing for thousands of dollars cash and prizes with main sponsor Epson Australia alone providing prizes that included an Epson SureColor P7070 printer, an Epson SureColor P5070 printer and an Epson EB-1795F ultra-slim projector.
Epson SureColor P5070 printer
The overall winner of the 2022 Amateur Competition was Florian Kriechbaumer of the United Arab Emirates with his entries ‘In Formation’, ‘The Confrontation’ and ‘Sunrise in the Clouds’.
Kriechbaumer said, “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. The country is an amazing playground for photography, which gave me the opportunity to slowly broaden my skillset 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 Juan Lopez Ruiz from Spain who said about his winning ‘Poison River’ entry, “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 Judith Kuhn from Germany for her entry ‘Bernese Oberland’. Judith said, “Alps in the Bernese Oberland. It is known among wildlife photographers for its ibex. A larger colony lives there, which has gotten used to the numerous walkers and shows little shyness. 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.”
Competition Curator, David Evans said, “What stands out this year is the quality of the entries, both generally and for the top placing images. The Pano Awards has always been about the journey of each and every photographer who enters. We can travel the world through their eyes and it’s the translation of each unique perspective into these works of art which seems to become more incredible each year. 2022 represents a leap in both creative vision and technical skill and I can’t stop staring at the images.”
The judging panel for The Epson International Pano awards includes some of the world's top panoramic photographers and industry professionals.
To view all the winning and top image galleries go to: https://thepanoawards.com/2022-winners-gallery
For enquiries and more information contact David Evans, Curator at contact@thepanoawards.com
