From the glowing Milky Way above a Montana lake to firework-like flowers in the Brazilian savannah at sunset, the winners of the 2025 World Nature Photography Awards highlight the endless wonders of our planet. In categories running the gamut of animal portraits, landscapes, urban wildlife, and more, photographers around the globe captured incredible views of creature behaviors, terrestrial vistas, and astronomical phenomena.
“The World Nature Photography Awards were founded in the belief that we can all make small efforts to shape the future of our planet in a positive way,” says a statement, “and that photography can influence people to see the world from a different perspective and change their own habits for the good of the planet.”
The 2025 edition of the contest saw thousands of entries submitted from 48 countries. The grand prize went to Maruša Puhek’s bold image of two deer leaping through a vineyard.
Many of the winning photos highlight the vulnerability of the earth’s inhabitants and juxtapositions between nature and the human-built environment. In Daniel Flormann’s “Lenuk Tasi,” for example, a baby sea turtle glides just beneath the surface of the boundless sea, and in Ael Kermarec’s “Reclaim,” a lava flow from an Icelandic volcano completely engulfs a road.
Some of our other favorites include Marcio Esteves Cabral’s vista full of rare Paepalanthus flowers illuminated by the sun in the Veadeiros Tablelands, Brazil, and Mohammad Murad’s capture of two backlit White-cheeked terns battling over territory on Kubbar Island, Kuwait.
See many more winning photos and purchase prints—including top picks from previous years’ competitions—in the WNPA store.
