These stunning iPhone Photography Award 2024 winners show you don’t need an iPhone 16 upgrade after all
The winners of the iPhone Photography Awards 2024 have just been announced –here are all of the winning shots.
The iPhone 16 Pro rumors might be promising some improved optical zoom and a better wide-angle camera, but the new winners of the iPhone Photography Awards 2024 show you don’t need a new iPhone to take great snaps.
The competition, now in its 17th year, runs independently of Apple but has become a staple in the smartphone-snapping calendar. It claims to be the world’s longest-running iPhone photography competition – and as you’d expect, some fine photos are spread across its 15 categories.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is understandably the most well-represented camera in the awards – it was used for 10 out of the 46 award-winning shots. However, the awards are by no means dominated by new Apple models. The second most popular phones were the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone X, which were used in four winning shots each.
A couple of photos were even shot on iPhones that won’t even support iOS 18 when it lands next month. First place in the ‘Animals’ category (shot by Colin Hoskins) was taken on an iPhone 7 Plus, which launched back in 2016. Meanwhile, the top spot in the ‘People’ category (an eerie shot of some renovators at an LA motel by Brooke Wilen) was taken on an iPhone 6S. ‘The best camera is the one you have with you’ may be a cliché, but it’s also true.
What’s clear from the winners below is that composition and a little editing both trump hardware these days. Very few shots appear to be ‘straight out of camera’, with many displaying the tell-tale signs of color tweaks from the best photo editing apps like Snapseed and Lightroom, or a tasteful black-and-white conversion.
While the competition’s rules stated that “photos should not be altered in Photoshop or any desktop image processing program”, that does leave the room open for mobile editors – and there’s nothing wrong with that in our book.
Looking for some World Photography Day inspiration? Here’s a gallery of all of this year’s award winners, and the iPhone that was used for each shot…
Overall winner
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Erin Brooks)
The judges chose the shot above, Boy Meets Shark by Erin Brooks, as their Grand Prize Winner. Erin is no stranger to the awards, having previously come second in the Portrait category in 2022 and winning the Series category in 2021. The black-and-white shot was taken on an iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Taken in Tampa, Florida, the shot captures the moment a young boy comes close to a huge shark – behind the safety of glass at least – with the judges stating it symbolizes “the innocence of youth juxtaposed with the mysteries of the deep sea.” The processing also fittingly gives it a picture-book quality.
It certainly wasn’t the only standout entry, though, as you can see in the galleries of the other category winners below…
Photographer of the year
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Glen Wilbert)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Anthony Maureal)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Wenlong Jiang)
Abstract
(Image credit: IPPA / Jose Manuel Garcia Gonzalez)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Verity Milligan)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Glenn Homann)
Animals
(Image credit: IPPA awards / Colin Hoskins)
(Image credit: IPPA awards / Huapeng Zhao)
(Image credit: IPPA awards / Rebecca Horrocks)
Architecture
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Leping Cheng)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Yixi Luo)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Stephanie Weber)
Children
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Daniel de Cerqueira)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Soledad Barranca Miron)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Ron Hendricks)
Cityscape
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Yanzhou Chen)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Aliaksandr Kaptsevich)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / James Kittendorf)
Landscape
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Paddy Chao)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Alessandra Manzotti)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Qu Lu)
Lifestyle
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Glen Wilbert)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / )
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / )
Nature
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Shinya Itahana)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Scott Galloway)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Linda Repasky)
Other
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Jun Hu)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Shuo Li)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Chan Nyein Aung)
People
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Brooke Wilen)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / George Allen)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Chi Zhang)
Portrait
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Artem-Koleganov)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Enhua Ni)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Manush Kalwari)
Series
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Xingping Zhou)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Wang WeiChao)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Philip Parsons)
Still Life
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Dai Fushun)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Yu Jiang)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / David Fish)
Travel
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Khalid Mahmood)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Hao Wen)
(Image credit: IPPA Awards / Gyula Somogyi)
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