Hasselblad has revealed the winners of the
Hasselblad Masters 2026, one of the world's most respected international photography competitions. Chosen from a shortlist of 70 finalists, seven exceptional photographers have been awarded the coveted title of Hasselblad Master 2026, recognizing their outstanding artistic vision, technical expertise, and innovative approach to photography.
Celebrating excellence in professional photography, the Hasselblad Masters competition brings together both established and emerging image-makers from around the world. The 2026 edition attracted more than 108,000 photographs submitted by artists from 160 countries and regions, making it one of the competition's most competitive years to date.
Entries were judged across seven categories: Landscape, Architecture, Portrait, Art, Street, Wildlife, and Project//21. After an extensive evaluation process, the Hasselblad Masters Grand Jury, with input from the public vote, selected one overall winner in each category. The jury assessed the work based on originality, conceptual depth, creativity, visual impact, and technical excellence.
Reflecting on this year's competition, Kalle Sanner, Executive Director of the Hasselblad Foundation and Chair of the Grand Jury, praised the exceptional quality of the winning portfolios:
This year's Hasselblad Masters submissions demonstrated that the most compelling photography does not simply document reality—it reshapes it. The strongest images reveal new layers over time, inviting viewers to look beyond the obvious. What connects the winners is their ability to use photography not only to show the world, but to question, reinterpret, and transform it.
As newly crowned Hasselblad Masters, the seven winners join an internationally acclaimed community of photographers whose work has helped shape contemporary photography. Each recipient will receive a 100-megapixel Hasselblad medium format camera, two XCD lenses, and a €5,000 creative grant to support future projects.
In addition, the winners will collaborate with Hasselblad on a special creative project, with their work featured in the upcoming Hasselblad Masters commemorative book and showcased across the company's global platforms, further expanding their international recognition and visibility.
THE HASSELBLAD MASTERS 2026 WINNERS
© Yudha Kusuma Putera III
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ART
Yudha Kusuma Putera | Waste Colonialism (Sapi-Sapi Piyungan) | Indonesia
Rooted in everyday life and inspired by its complexity, Yudha Kusuma Putera turns a keen eye
toward the social issues that hide in plain sight, exploring the tensions between humans, nature,
and the systems we build around us.
The winning images are part of a project examining how developed nations export their waste to
developing countries, where labour and costs are lower. This logic repeats on a smaller scale too: within
cities, landfills are built on the outskirts, kept out of sight and out of mind. At Yogyakarta's Piyungan
landfill, a city's waste is sorted by scavengers and consumed by cows, quietly piling up into a second hill.
He photographed the backs of these cows stacked together, with their forms mirroring the landscape of
trash around them. The work does not seek to assign blame, but to invite collective reflection on the
waste we produce, and the futures we are building from it.
''On the surface, the images appear direct and unambiguous, and yet they consistently resist easy
reading, generating a sense of visual uncertainty that keeps the viewer engaged and questioning. The
images do not announce themselves loudly, but reward sustained attention with a slow-building sense
of strangeness that is both intellectually stimulating and visually striking,'' says Kalle Sanner, Executive
Director at the Hasselblad Foundation.
ARCHITECTURE
Kevin Boyle | DaySleeper | Movieland | Canada
Kevin Boyle was shaped by the open skies and close-knit communities of the Canadian prairies. After the
loss of his father, he returned home, only to find the places he once knew hollowed out and silent, their
gathering spaces boarded up and left to disappear. For over ten years, his photographic journey has
been a profound tribute to the abandoned architecture of North America's local communities.
The winning series is comprised of photographic montages, with each part of the building lit with
flashlights and blended in post-production to create an ethereal portrait of once important gathering
places. Through his lens, these forgotten spaces become vibrant, glowing symbols of community
heritage and shared human connection.
''The composition, and the fact that the images are empty of people, triggers our imaginations, taking us
back to a time when these buildings would have thrived with the community meeting for evening
entertainment. By making this series, the photographer invites us to consider the myriad of small
venues that make up the social fabric of small communities,''says Sonia Jeunet, Photography Consultant
and Education at Magnum Photos.
PORTRAIT
Svetlana Jovanovic | Otherness | The Netherlands
With a psychology background, Svetlana Jovanovic's portraiture is driven by a deep curiosity about
identity — how we experience the world, construct our sense of self, and see ourselves through the
eyes of others. Her style brings together fine art portraiture and a commitment to visual beauty,
believing that the conceptual and the aesthetic are inseparable: each gives the other meaning.
The winning images are part of Otherness, an ongoing long-term project exploring identical twins and
the tension between shared identity and individual presence. While twins share so much, it is the small
differences that emerge over time, the subtle ways each person's character becomes visible within the
shared image, that lie at the heart of the work. Each portrait is a collaboration, shaped as much by the
relationship between the twins as by the photographer's own vision, inviting viewers to reflect on how
we define ourselves both apart from, and through, one another.
''Through precise use of light and composition, this portrait series explores the themes of mirroring and
duality. Whether capturing two sides of the same face or the closeness of two kindred souls, the images
reveal subtle layers of emotion with quiet precision,''says RongRong, Co-founder and Artistic Director at
The Three Shadows Photography Art Centre
LANDSCAPE
Rohan Reilly | Ephemeral Visions | Ireland
Rooted in the discipline of a composer, Rohan Reilly's images strip away complexity to reveal the
essentials, which are texture, tone, and stillness. His signature long-exposure technique transforms
moving water and shifting skies into silk-like surfaces, while vast negative space and low saturation give
his work a poetic, meditative quality that transcends documentation. The process is one of patience and
preparation: studying weather patterns, returning season after season, and waiting for the precise
conditions that cannot be engineered but only earned.
This winning series captures a row of poplar trees planted along the banks of the River Po in Italy, which
are natural guardians against flooding, now standing immersed in perfectly still water beneath soft,
diffused light. What was once a purely functional landscape transforms into something surreal and
dreamlike. In this quietly breathtaking scene, the photographer's vision can find its fullest expression:
nature distilled to its core, and time momentarily held still.
''A forest of birch trees could be a monotonous subject. But these photographs are hypnotic objects of
meditation, creating something expansive through repetition and ostensible sameness,'' says Zack
Hatfield, Managing Editor at Aperture Magazine.
PROJECT 21
© Panitbhand Paribatra Na Ayudhya
| Dwellers of the Night | Thailand
Panitbhand Paribatra Na Ayudhya is a young underwater photographer and scuba diver from Thailand.
His work is rooted in a quiet dedication to the ocean, documenting its life, its fragility, and the
ecosystems that sustain it, in the hope that what is seen through his lens will not be forgotten.
His winning series was captured in the waters of Anilao, Philippines, where pelagic and larval marine life
migrate from the depths each night to feed under the cover of darkness. Using slow shutter speeds to
capture the elegant motion of his subjects, and carefully chosen coloured lighting to reveal their form
and beauty, he illuminates a world rarely seen. For the ribbon eel, a diffused warm light conjures a
subtle sunset behind the subject — crowning it as a master of the night. Some of these creatures spend
their entire lives in the open ocean, making the pelagic ecosystem as fragile as it is extraordinary.
''I’m drawn to the quiet whimsy of these sea creatures. Set against black, the creatures feel almost
otherworldly- strange, delicate, and entirely captivating. There’s a simplicity to the presentation that
allows their inherent oddness to shine, reminding us how unfamiliar and compelling the natural world
can be when seen without distraction.'' says Alex Pollack, Director of Photography at National
Geographic.
STREET
Gosse Bouma | Morning Ritual | The Netherlands
Gosse Bouma is a photographer whose work is driven by a quiet pursuit: to offer moments of tranquility
in a world that rarely slows down. His distinct style lies at the intersection of urban geometry and
natural elements, pairing the hard lines of architecture with the soft, unpredictable textures of weather.
Each photograph is infused with the intention of invoking serenity amidst the chaos of everyday life,
creating visual experiences that invite stillness and reflection, even if only for a fleeting moment.
His winning series, taken across the Netherlands, turns to the street market as its subject, a space where
people of all ages and backgrounds meet, exchange a few words, share warmth, and move on. In
capturing these small, unhurried encounters, Bouma preserves something increasingly rare in
contemporary life: a genuine sense of togetherness.
''The photographer understands atmosphere, scale and timing. The small lit kiosks within the vast blue
urban emptiness create images that feel both intimate and monumental. Here, genuine photographic
tension emerges. The series uses colour structurally, not decoratively. Mist, artificial light and
architecture form one coherent world,'' says Aya Musa, Senior Curator at Foam.
WILDLIFE
Alfred Minnaar | The Forest I Roam | South Africa
Alfred Minnaar's creative process often begins with observation and patience. Rather than
simply documenting his subjects, he seeks to understand their behaviour, environment, and
relationship with the surrounding ecosystem. Over a decade of global exploration, his fine-art
philosophy has evolved from a traveler's passion into a powerful voice for conservation,
capturing fleeting deep-sea and wildlife narratives to inspire the preservation of our planet.
The winning images of a tiny goby living amongst coral were created to challenge our
perception of scale and encourage viewers to look closer. Rather than focusing solely on the
fish, the photographer wanted to use it as a point of reference within a much larger world. By
placing the goby within its environment, the reef itself becomes the subject, inviting viewers to
imagine its vastness from the perspective of one of its smallest inhabitants.
''The vibrancy of the palette immediately draws you in, and the way the small fish are framed
against their environments creates a sense of scale that almost reads as landscape. There’s a
nice balance here between detail and composition, with the micro subjects holding their own
within a larger, almost abstracted environment,'' says Alex Pollack, Director of Photography at
National Geographic.
HASSELBLAD MASTERS 2026 GRAND JURY
- Kalle Sanner, Executive Director, Hasselblad Foundation
- Alex Pollack, Director of Photography, National Geographic
- Aya Musa, Senior Curator, Foam
- RongRong, Co-founder and Artistic Director, Three Shadows Photography Art Centre
- Sonia Jeunet, Photography Consultant and Education, Magnum Photos
- Zack Hatfield, Managing Editor, Aperture Magazine
