See the World 2026: Meet the Winners

We requested our group to submit a favorite photograph, video, or assortment alongside just a few phrases on how pictures helps them see the world. The response spanned continents and disciplines: from movie to drone, water to abandon, solo journey to household historical past. Here are the ten winners, in their very own phrases.

@roux.ko | #SeeTheWorld

“At its simplest, to create a photograph requires me to go out and engage with the world. To be conscious of how the landscape casts light into my eyes, produces sounds that reach my ears, and forms the physical space that dictates how I move. When the shutter clicks, in that moment, the photograph captures this relationship; the world reaching out to me. In this way, photography is more than a way of seeing. It is the documentation of my active participation in a world that is, in turn, participating with me.”

@moha._.hamidi | #SeeTheWorld

“Each photograph I chose here took me out of my separate self and dropped me directly into my heart, into the moment. For a brief instant, I didn’t feel my body, I didn’t feel an “I.” The separation between me and what I was seeing disappeared. I was not the photographer looking at the photograph; I was the photograph itself.

What a life without a sense of “me.” Isn’t this creation? A creation that does not cling to the past, does not reach toward the future, but exists in the absolute innocence of the moment?

I often ask myself whether there is a way to bring such a state into ordinary life. Yet immediately, the question feels almost naive. The moment I try to cultivate it, I am already trying to possess it — turning something spontaneous into something I can achieve.

Perhaps that is why photography matters so much to me. It can take me away from myself. It asks me to look so completely that, for a moment, there is only looking.

Through my photographs, I try to offer that same possibility to whoever encounters them: not simply to look at an image, but to momentarily lose the distance between themselves and what they see. To feel one. One with the image. One with the moment. One with all of it.”

@simonnikolaus_ | #SeeTheWorld

“What I love most about filmmaking is its ability to capture the essence of an emotion. It’s not about creating visuals for the sake of beauty, but about using them to recreate a feeling or thoughts I once experienced — to let someone else feel the spirit of that moment through the images.”

@liuyhstreets | #SeeTheWorld

“With photography I started to experience the world instead of just visiting it. It pushes me off-season, off-grid, toward moments that don’t make the postcard. Chasing local festivals and remote places most tourists skip, earning the shot through effort or endurance rather than watching from a distance. Not sightseeing, but living it.”

@rosie_feather_ | #SeeTheWorld

“I see the world by water. My pictures explores the pure world by water and lightweight. Influenced by my effective artwork background, I take a painterly, textured method to picture making to disclose unseen, portal-like moments hidden inside nature.”

@nickgreenphoto | #SeeTheWorld

“I believe for me, pictures has at all times been a inventive outlet that has allowed me to stay a easy but very fulfilling life. It’s been a type of meditation and a method to join with the world round me, it permits me to not solely specific myself however to additionally shine mild on issues I believe are vital. Over time, I’ve realised that pictures is not essentially about documenting what a spot seems like, however understanding the way it feels to be there. The ocean specifically has taught me to be affected person, snug with uncertainty, and conscious of how small we’re inside the pure world. It has change into the best way I make sense of the world round me. It provides me someplace past myself to focus, encourages curiosity, and has helped me type a a lot deeper reference to place. The extra carefully I look, the extra I realise how a lot there’s to note.”

@ameliabug | #SeeTheWorld

“Photography helps me see the world, by forcing me to decelerate. Shooting 35mm movie on my Pentax K1000 is totally guide. Achieving composition, focus and publicity requires taking a breath and changing into totally current within the present second. This choice of photographs, shot throughout a 20-day all-women’s crossing of distant north-west Svalbard, showcases an atmosphere few individuals have the privilege to expertise. It additionally illustrates Svalbard throughout a second in time — it is unlikely to look the identical ever once more, as Svalbard is warming six to seven instances quicker than the worldwide common. Average native temperatures have risen by roughly 4°C over the previous 50 years, with winter spikes even larger. Photography helps me seize the sweetness and fragility of the world’s most distant corners. Shooting movie stills in between capturing footage for a documentary movie provided the chance to method my topics otherwise, and break up the extra arduous ski days. Plus with movie, there isn’t any hazard of my batteries dying.”

Location: Svalbard

@dwhittaker99_photo | #SeeTheWorld

“Life is fleeting. No extra so than within the desert nation. Brief prospers interspersed by tougher instances. Flows of water bringing life to the land earlier than the dry inevitably units in once more. Photography helps to seize these moments. Moments of greens and golds carpeting the desert flooring. Moments of floodwaters filling Australia’s largest freshwater lake, Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre on Arabana and Dhirari nation. Moments the place waters from far-flung locations over the continent meet and blend. The moments when giant flocks of pelicans, terns and different waterbirds descend on the inside to breed and take advantage of the nice instances. Flying above the panorama and capturing these scenes is a real pleasure to me. A novel perspective that may be a true privilege to see and a treasure to {photograph}.”

Location: Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, Australia

@lens.and.latitude | #SeeTheWorld

“A ardour for artwork and visible storytelling has at all times been a part of me, however every little thing really started after I purchased my first drone. Seeing the world from above impressed me to discover and create extra. I’m naturally curious, and pictures encourages me to hunt out particular locations, look past the apparent and uncover views I’d by no means have thought of earlier than. Over time, this ardour naturally expanded into each pictures and videography, changing into my method of capturing landscapes, experiences and the feelings I really feel whereas travelling.”

@dani.niederkofler | #SeeTheWorld

“We live in a world that is already overflowing with images. Sometimes I ask myself what the point is in making more. There are more photographs than we could ever look at, more moments captured than we could ever experience. And still, I can’t stop taking pictures. There’s something about photography that keeps pulling me back. The way an image can hold a feeling, capture a fleeting moment, or show a place, a person or a sport from a perspective that might otherwise go unnoticed. So, what is photography for me? It’s a tool that has allowed me to meet people I would have otherwise never met, explore places I might never have seen, and experience different cultures. But from the very beginning, it has also been a creative outlet — a way to express myself, experiment with ideas and simply create.”

Want to be featured next time? Tag your images with #SeeTheWorld and share the story behind the shot.