The Minimalist Photography Awards 2026 celebrate the vision, creativity, and originality of photographers from around the world. In their 8th edition, the awards honor outstanding minimalist photography and photographers who demonstrate how simplicity can tell powerful and expressive visual stories.
🏆 The winner
🥇 1
Photographer of the Year
📸 Photographer: Marcin Giba
đź“· Winning series: The Last Winter
   Marcin Giba was named Minimalist Photographer of the Year 2026 for his impressive series “The Last Winter”.
Created in his hometown of Rybnik, Poland, the series depicts frozen lakes from a bird’s-eye view, revealing unexpected forms in the landscape. At first glance, the photographs appear as abstract studies of ice, snow, and textures. Upon closer inspection, familiar shapes begin to emerge—an eye, lips, a heart, or parts of a human face.
Giba’s work was selected from more than 6,200 images from 66 countries and awarded the main prize of €2,000 . The jury was particularly impressed by his original perspective and his ability to transform a familiar natural landscape into something unexpected and deeply personal.
The Minimalist Photography Awards offer photographers an international platform to showcase their work and receive recognition for their creative vision. The 2026 edition brought together photographers from around the world and celebrated the power of minimalism, simplicity, and visual storytelling.
Quote from Milad Safabakhsh, founder of the Minimalist Photography Awards and jury member:
“Minimalism constantly reminds us that an image doesn’t have to be complex to be powerful. The 2026 edition brings together photographers from all over the world who find beauty and meaning in simplicity, space, light, and silence. What particularly impresses me about this year’s selection is how different the approaches of the individual photographers are. Together, these images show how much minimalist photography has evolved and how relevant and inspiring it remains today.”
đź”— Full list of winners:
Discover all the winners, finalists and award-winning works of the Minimalist Photography Awards 2026 on the official website:
View the full list of winners ↗
📸 Image credit: Minimalist Photography Awards. All photographers are credited in the image captions.