Summary
- Stefano Rosselli’s Amina is Photo of the Year.
- The gallery features nine single-image category winners and four first-place Storyboard series.
- Adam Pretty’s Weightless won the video category.
- No Greek distinction was confirmed in the lists reviewed.
Stefano Rosselli’s “Amina” has been named Photo of the Year at the Siena International Photo Awards 2026, placing the gaze of an Afghan girl at the centre of this year’s awards.
The official gallery brings together nine single-image categories, four first-place series in Storyboard and a separate video award, spanning life in Gaza, immigration arrests in the United States, a volcanic eruption, a puma hunt and everyday city life.
The Video winner is “Weightless” by Adam Pretty, following athletes and coaches from USA Artistic Swimming above and below the water.
“Amina” and life behind the doorway
Rosselli photographs Amina through a doorway, her face emerging from the dark interior. In the accompanying description, he connects the portrait to restrictions imposed on women in Afghanistan and the denial of work and independence. The doorway, limited light and direct gaze carry the image, without an elaborate setting or a crowd of subjects.
Portraits and photojournalism: news at a human scale
In Fascinating Faces and Characters, Saher Alghorra won with “Enduring Food Deprivation”. Two-year-old Yazan Abu Foul, suffering from malnutrition, is held by his mother in Al-Shati camp, west of Gaza City, on 19 July 2025. The family is living among the ruins of its destroyed home without reliable access to food.
Gaza remains prominent among the awarded images, following Ali Jadallah’s “Irreplaceable”, the overall winner in 2024. Alghorra’s image focuses on a malnourished child and the arms holding him.
Carol Guzy took first place in Documentary & Photojournalism with “Tender Humanity”. In New York on 20 August 2025, a guard wipes away tears beside a mother and her child, shortly after ICE detained her husband during his immigration court hearing. The photograph also appears in Guzy’s winning series “ICE”.
Nature and wildlife: from lava to patient observation
“A Powerful Onset” by Marco Di Marco won The Beauty of Nature. It records the eruption at Sundhnúkagígar, Iceland, on 20 November 2024, with lava tracing bright paths through the winter night as activity gradually concentrates into fewer vents.
Animals in Their Environment was won by Kevin Shi with “Power Play”. He had spent days following a female puma with two cubs. The attack on the guanaco came at dawn after the predator had watched its prey for some time. The outcome is not necessarily what the frame suggests: the guanaco escaped.
Patience also shaped “After the Sunset” by Marek Jóźwik, the Under 20 winner. His room in Poland’s Biebrza National Park overlooked a white stork nest. He returned to the subject each evening until a clear sky allowed him to isolate the nest above the dark treeline.
Sport, streets, underwater life and journeys
Dean Mouhtaropoulos won Sports in Action with “Jumping Javelineer”. Cuba’s Guillermo Varona González prepares for the F46 javelin final at the 2025 World Para Athletics Championships on 29 September. His leap, the javelin and the stadium lights give this moment of preparation its own intensity.
In Street Photography, Luca Paccusse’s “Urban puzzle” starts with a face on a bus-stop poster in Rome. A few minutes of waiting brought gazes, reflections and different surfaces together in the sunset light.
Nur Tucker won Underwater Life with “Commotion in the Ocean”. Beneath the surface, northern gannets compete for discarded fish. The accompanying description draws attention to the fishing activity that creates this concentration of food and alters the birds’ behaviour.
In Journeys & Adventures, Amir Hossein Kamali’s “Mothers” depicts the communal Eid al-Fitr prayer marking the end of Ramadan. The rows of women and the presence of a child establish the picture’s rhythm and connect the ritual to a new generation.
Storyboard: four first-place series
The official Storyboard page labels four works “1st classified”. All four are presented here, with the nine images listed for each series in the gallery.
“Así Es La Vida (C’est la vie) CECOT” — Juan Carlos. The series enters El Salvador’s vast CECOT prison. Dormitories, tightly packed bodies, controls and institutional spaces form a record of life under strict confinement.
“ICE” — Carol Guzy. Guzy follows immigration arrests at courthouses and the consequences of family separation under the Trump administration’s deportation policy. The images move from masked agents and moments of force to children, relatives and protests in the street.
“China Goes Green” — George Steinmetz. Steinmetz examines the scale of China’s energy transition through trains, electric vehicles, factories, wind turbines and solar installations. Moving between industrial spaces and everyday journeys, the series connects energy and equipment production with their use.
“Women’s Bodies as Battlefields” — Cinzia Canneri. Canneri focuses on Eritrean and Tigrayan women across Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan. The project documents gender-based violence during conflict, alongside mutual support, the gathering of testimony and women’s efforts to seek justice.
Checking for Greek distinctions
We did not identify a confirmed Greek distinction in the official lists reviewed. Dean Mouhtaropoulos won the sports category and received Highly Commended for “Sun Shadow Skater”, but his official profile lists the Netherlands and says he is from Dandenong, Melbourne. It does not establish Greek heritage, so we are not classifying these awards as Greek on the basis of his surname.
What we think
The descriptions deserve as much attention as the images. “Power Play” shows an attack that ultimately failed, while “Commotion in the Ocean” takes on a different meaning once we know the birds are competing for fishing discards. Accurate captions are part of a photographer’s responsibility towards what is shown. For the viewer, they can prevent a striking frame from suggesting the wrong conclusion.
That responsibility is even greater in work about human suffering. “Amina” and “Enduring Food Deprivation” need their names, places and circumstances. Focusing only on light or composition loses sight of the people the pictures concern. Presenting complete series makes room for more of a story than the single image that first catches our eye on a screen.
For photographers, the collection is useful for the range of approaches it reveals: returning to the same subject, waiting for elements to align, following behaviour and staying with a difficult story. The awards give us a reason to look; the photographers’ specific choices give us something to study.
Frequently asked questions
Where are the winning photographs exhibited?
The Siena International Photo Awards exhibition “People Sharing all the World” is at Via Fiorentina 95, Siena, from 11 October to 29 November 2026.
Are these the same awards as the Drone and Creative Photo Awards?
No. The Siena International Photo Awards, Drone Photo Awards and Creative Photo Awards are separate competitions within Siena Awards. This article covers the SIPA 2026 results.
