Clean-sweep for American youngsters, as North American photographers and locations also feature across the categories

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, January 9, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Three young Americans have won the top awards in the junior categories of the 2017 Travel Photographer of the Year contest (www.tpoty.com).

The contest - now in its 15th year - has another fantastic and wonderfully diverse set of photographs and photographic travel stories celebrating the humanity, landscape, environment and wildlife of this planet. Across the adult and junior categories, more than 20,000 images were submitted by photographers in 129 countries, and entrants from 24 countries received awards - and it was a clean-sweep for the USA in Young Travel Photographer of the Year. In addition North American photographers and locations featured in the other categories of the awards. The winning images will go on display this year at Travel Photographer of the Year exhibitions in 2018, including one in London, England.

12-year-old Morgan Wolfers from Colorado, becomes one of the youngest-ever winners of Young Travel Photographer of the Year, with a beautifully-shot portfolio of aspen trees and leaves in Kenosha Pass, Colorado. Morgan, who is on the Autistic spectrum, took the winning images when just 11 years old.

Travel Photographer of the Year founder Chris Coe said, “Photographing nature is Morgan’s passion and the attention to detail and focus which can come with Autism has made a hugely positive contribution when it comes to photography. There is evidence here of a remarkable innate talent, and an exceptional focus on the craft. It’s very exciting to see such a very young photographer with such a good eye for composition, color and detail and with such maturity in their approach to work."

Travel Photographer of the Year 14 and Under was won by 13-year-old Maddie Nolan from Texas, with a charming portfolio of a hummingbird in Creede, Colorado, while 17-year-old Josiah Huddleston, who has spent all his life in Japan, won Young Travel Photographer of the Year 15-18 years with his mysterious, sombre and atmospheric images of a Japanese forest.

In the ‘grown-up’ section of the awards, Canadian amateur photographer Katherine Keates, from North York, Ontario, won the Earth & Climate portfolio category with her exquisitely simple and delicate photographs of a dry riverbed landscape near Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. Katy Laveck Foster from Bellevue, Washington finished second in the Wildlife/Sea Life single image category with a stunning image of a green sea turtle in Indonesia while San Francisco’s Tom Stahl came second in the New Talent category with six images of Nevada’s Burning Man festival and Connor Hawke was Commended in the smartphone category iShot for his shot of Spiderman in Times Square in Connor’s native New York.

Travel Photographer of the Year was founded in 2003 and rapidly became one of the world’s leading travel photography awards. The contest accepts entries from amateur, semi-pro and professional photographers of all ages and from all countries. It has received entries from photographers in more than 140 countries and, to date, the oldest entrant has been 88 years old, the youngest just five. The contest is judged by an international panel of photographers and imaging experts. The 2017 jury featured judges from the UK, USA, Italy, Germany and Malaysia, including the renowned American photographer Barbara Bordnick, the award-winning photographer and picture editor Eamonn McCabe – recently seen presenting the BBC TV Series ‘Britain in Focus: A Photographic History’ – Michelle Jana Chan (Travel Editor, Vanity Fair magazine) and Michael Pritchard (Chief Executive of the Royal Photographic Society).

A full gallery of all 140 of the winning, runner-up, commended, commended and special mention images can be seen on the awards’ website. For more information about the Travel Photographer of the Year awards, exhibitions, books, cards and prints please visit www.tpoty.com

Karen Coe
Travel Photographer of the Year
+44 1728 627752
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