The 17th Epson International Pano Awards has announced its 2026 winners, with Spanish photographer Daniel Viñé Garcia named Open Photographer of the Year and Tomás Sánchez Ruiz, also of Spain, taking Amateur Photographer of the Year. This year’s competition drew 4,084 entries from photographers in 93 countries, an increase of 19 percent on 2025. Entries divided into 2,122 in the Open competition and 1,962 in the Amateur competition, with the field including 680 entries in the new Aerial categories. “Photographers at every level, from first-time entrants to established professionals, use the Pano Awards as a benchmark for their own work,” said Craig Heckenberg, Managing Director of Epson Australia and New Zealand. “The aerial category is a perfect example of why the competition has stayed relevant for 17 years. It responds to what photographers are actually doing and it gives the global industry a view of where the craft is heading next.”
That new category is the headline development of the 2026 awards. For 17 years the Pano Awards has celebrated the panoramic format and for 17 years entrants have asked for a dedicated aerial division. The winner of The Epson Digital Art Prize 2026 was The Rugby Players shot by Preeti and Prashant Chacko (who entered as a couple from India) and who commented on their stunning image saying, “Southern white rhinos are, in their normal state, are surprisingly unthreatening – calm grazers who move around at a leisurely pace. One morning at Solio Game Reserve in Kenya we were photographing a group of eight rhinos with a few cattle egrets walking among them, a rare sighting in most other national parks. Something suddenly shifted and five of the rhinos broke into a run. We understood in that instant why a group of rhinos is called a crash. Neither of us has ever played rugby, but from the point of view of the egrets this is how we imagine a forward pack must look, heads down and all that weight already committed.”
The Epson International Pano Awards is the world’s largest competition dedicated to panoramic photography and Epson Australia is the main sponsor alongside Epson Southeast Asia. Its reputation rests on a format that demands more from a photographer than almost any other. To view the full gallery of 2026 winning and runner-up images go to: https://thepanoawards.com