2026 Minimalist Photography Awards Winners Show the Power of Simplicity

Aug 27, 2026 - 22:14

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2026 Minimalist Photography Awards Winners Show the Power of Simplicity

A triptych showing a giant stone hand sculpture under a starry sky, a dense swarm of birds forming a circular shape, and a silhouette of a person wearing a cowboy hat.

The 2026 Minimalist Photography Awards has announced its winners. This year, photographers from nearly 70 countries entered over 6,200 photos for consideration, competing across a dozen categories.

Polish Photographer Marcin Giba Is the 2026 Minimalist Photographer of the Year

Alongside top three finishers in all 12 categories, competition judges also named Polish photographer Marcin Giba this year’s Minimalist Photographer of the Year. Along with the title, Giba also took home a grand prize of €2,000, which is over $2,300 at current exchange rates.

A circular, dark blue textured shape with a lighter, star-shaped center and irregular, frayed edges against a white background.

A dark, horizontal crack runs through a patch of blue-tinted snow against a stark white background, resembling the shape of lips.

A dark blue, textured, rectangular shape with frayed edges features a central black starburst pattern that radiates outward.

A circular, textured blue shape with a dark, dense center that fades into a lighter, speckled edge against a white background.

Giba created the series, The Last Winter, in his hometown of Rybnik, Poland. The series, which also won the Aerial Photography category, shows ice, snow, and texture in abstract ways. However, the longer the viewer looks at Giba’s photos, the more other shapes appear, like eyes or a heart.

“These forms are not imposed on the landscape but discovered within it, creating an intriguing connection between nature and the human imagination,” the Minimalist Photography Awards explain. “Giba’s photographs move between landscape and abstraction, inviting viewers to look beyond what is immediately visible and find their own associations in the ice.”

A dark, circular cluster of thousands of starlings against a bright white sky, with a small, star-shaped crack in the center.

An aerial view shows a heart-shaped patch of dark, melting ice surrounded by white snow, with animal tracks crossing the surface.

An aerial view shows a dark, star-shaped crack in a frozen, snow-covered lake, surrounded by a circular pattern of footprints.

For Giba, the series also serves as a reminder of a truly cold winter in Poland. His childhood was full of them, but the winters are getting milder nearly every year. One day, Giba’s memories of a winter wonderland may only be just that, memories.

Category Winners

Alongside Giba’s grand prize-winning series, The Last Winter, photographers competed for the top three spots across a dozen total categories. Selected photos from each of the winners are presented in galleries below, although all award-winning photos are available on the competition’s website.

The winning images range from eerie photos of abandoned buildings and cities to a sculpture photographed under the Milky Way on Easter Island. What all the award-winning photos below have in common is that they embrace minimalism, and not always in the same way. Some photographers delivered work with very little texture, while others approached minimalism through a restricted use of color.

“Minimalism continues to remind us that an image doesn’t have to be complex to be powerful,” says Milad Safabakhsh, the Founder of Minimalist Photography Awards and Jury Member.

“The 2026 edition brings together photographers from around the world who find beauty and meaning in simplicity, space, light and silence. What I love about this year’s selection is how different each photographer’s approach is. Together, these images show how much minimalist photography has grown and how relevant and inspiring it continues to be today,” Safabakhsh continues.