16 Award-Winning Photographers Showcase the Power of iPhone
The 2026 iPhone Photography Awards (IPPAWARDS) has announced the winners of its 20th annual competition. This year, thousands of photographers from more than 140 countries showed just how powerful an iPhone can be in the right hands and how great photos don’t always require high-end, dedicated camera equipment.
This year’s overall winner is Robyn Jensen from the Cayman Islands for an incredible shot of a volcanic eruption shot on an iPhone 15 Pro using its main camera (24mm equivalent). The shot combines a starry night sky with vibrant, glowing lava to great effect.
Beyond Jensen’s Grand Prize victory, the iPhone Photography Awards also selected Gold, Silver, and Bronze “Photographers of the Year.” These winners, Hungarian photographer Gellert Gombai, American Arnold Plotnick, and American Catherine Wang, each delivered very different but equally excellent photos. They also showed that photographers don’t necessarily need the latest and greatest iPhone models to capture incredible photos, as Gold Prize winner Gellert Gombai used an iPhone X for their winning shot. This phone came out in 2017, and its main camera image sensor is so small that it has a 7x crop factor.
Alongside the overall winners above, the iPhone Photography Awards also celebrate great photos across specific categories, including Abstract, Animals, Landscape, Nature, Portrait, Street, and more. Only the category winners are featured here, while the runners-up and third-place winner can be seen on the iPhone Photography Awards website.
The complete gallery of award-winning photos, including hundreds of Honorable Mentions, is available on the iPhone Photography Awards website. It is often said that the best camera is the one a photographer has with them. In many cases, that’s a smartphone. As the 2026 iPhone Photography Awards winners demonstrate, a phone can be an extremely good camera.
Image credits: iPhone Photography Awards. Individual photographers are credited in the captions.