The Underwater Photographer of the Year 2015 results were announced during a ceremony at the London Dive Show last weekend. The overall winner was Nuno Sá, with his macro portrait of a seahorse entitled “50 Tons of Me”, a reminder about the commercial harvesting of seahorses. Hearty congratulations to all the winners and especially to the many members of the Wetpixel community in the rankings.

Please visit the UPY-London results page for the full competition results.

Press release

Here are some of the winning images from the Underwater Photographer of the Year (UPY) competition, the first installment of this new competition that brings a world-leading underwater photography contest back to the UK, 50 years after the original Brighton Festival. The awards were announced on stage at the London International Dive Show on 14th February.

Three esteemed judges, Alex Mustard, Martin Edge and Peter Rowlands had the pleasure of going through 2500 entries to select the award winners. “It was highly enjoyable, but something we took very seriously, every judge saw every picture multiple times, I think we probably know some of the images better than the photographers who took them,” said Alex Mustard, chair of the judging panel and the driving force behind UPY. “The quantity and particularly the quality of the images entered left us all astounded. It was a privilege to be part of something so special. Heart-warming to see the competitions so enthusiastically embraced by the community, heartbreaking at times when we just couldn’t squeeze some truly amazing images into the winners circle.”

The title of Underwater Photographer of the Year went to Portuguese photographer Nuno Sá, for his exquisitely lit close up image of a short snouted seahorse, taken in Algarve. Sá was documenting a seahorse breeding program for National Geographic and achieved the beautiful lighting with help from two of the seahorse scientists, who were holding his flashes. He hopes the success of his photo will highlight the plight of seahorses and the value of captive breeding. “Each year 50 tonnes of seahorses are caught for aquariums and the traditional oriental medicines,” said Sá, “and captive breeding would really take the pressure of wild populations.”

UPY revived two long standing titles from the days of the Brighton Festival: the British Underwater Photographer of the Year and the Most Promising British Underwater Photographer 2015, awarded to the best photos by UK based photographers or British nationals, wherever they live in the world. UPY Judge Peter Rowlands delighted in reminding us, regularly, that he is a former British Underwater Photographer of the Year!

Marine biologist and underwater wildlife photographer, Matt Doggett from Southampton, won the title of British Underwater Photographer of the Year for his action packed photo of gannets feeding in the Shetland Islands, that judge Rowlands described as “quite literally breathtaking”.

If possible, the experience of taking the picture was even more dramatic than the photo. “They hit the water at 50-60mph and I had to be fast to get the shots,” commented Doggett. “I was shooting from the hip and rarely had time to look through the viewfinder. Sometimes the gannets were right on the front of the lens! It was utterly amazing. You could hear them hitting the surface one after another.”

Mario Vitalini from Surrey won the Most Promising British Underwater Photographer, 2015, which is awarded to a rising star, who is yet to register any major competition success. Although Mario will be a familiar face to many as he was modelling on the cover of the January 2015 issue of DIVER! Mario’s creative image employed backlighting to make a goby seem to glow against the dark sponge.

“I love backlighting for the contrast it brings and I really like the translucent effect it has on many subjects,” explained Mario. “Even with all the other amazing critters in Lembeh, I could not resist this ordinary goby and had a fun competition with my dive buddy to get a backlit shot.”

In addition to these three special awards, the competition was divided into 8 categories, testing photographers’ skills in macro, wide angle, wrecks and behaviour. There were categories for UK waters and overseas, a category just for Up and Coming photographers who have yet to be published or won contests, and even a category for images taken with compact cameras in British waters.

The best will be going home with quality prizes from some of the industries most popular brands: Scuba Travel, Nauticam, Apeks and Fourth Element. Their support of this new venture was fundamental to its successful start.

The UPY winners’ circle includes professionals with international reputations, well-known competition specialists and a host of new names that clearly have a very bright future. UPY has been a truly international affair and not simply dominated by photographers from southern Europe and the States. UPY has winners from places as diverse as Bahrain, Kazakhstan and the Philippines, demonstrating how global underwater photography has become.

“I was particularly pleased to see female photographers doing so well in UPY,” added Alex Mustard, “photography is definitely a discipline that the sexes can compete side by side, and everyone knows women make the best divers! We had 14 different female photographers amongst our winning and commended entries, and in my favourite category of Behaviour, it was a clean sweep of the podium for the ladies, with Montse Grillo, Tammy Gibbs and Cathy Lewis.”

“The UK has a rich history of underwater photography from William Thompson to Peter Scoones. Even James Bond took photos with a Nikonos! I feel that UPY has definitely recaptured the spirit of the Brighton Festival,” concludes Mustard “and has brought a world-class festival of underwater photography back to Britain. I am already excited to find out who will be winners in Underwater Photographer of the Year 2016. Watch this space!”