The best photos of 2015

How do you pick a handful of favourites from a whole year’s worth of photos? It’s nearly an impossible task. Some sources estimate that we take over 800 billion pictures a year worldwide – you couldn’t even view them all in a year if looking at photographs was all you did 24/7.

But thankfully, some of the world’s most popular international photography competitions have done most of the work for us.

With competitions such as the World Press Photo, Landscape Photographer of the Year, Wildlife Photographer of the Year and the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize, the cream of every genre of photography is skimmed annually for the benefit of us all. Here are the ones we will remember from 2015.

SEE MORE: The 24 best photos from 2014

1 Tale of Two Foxes
The red fox has just won a struggle for life and is eating his fill of the prey, a northern arctic fox. This unusual portrait was taken by Don Gutoski, an amateur photographer who was crowned Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015.

Jury member and National Geographic magazine’s senior editor for natural history projects, Kathy Moran said: “The immediate impact of this photograph is that it appears as if the red fox is slipping out of its winter coat.

“What might simply be a straightforward interaction between predator and prey struck the jury as a stark example of climate change, with red foxes encroaching on Arctic fox territory.

This image works on multiple levels: it is graphic, it captures behaviour and it is one of the strongest single storytelling photographs I have seen.”

SEE MORE: Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2015 winners revealed

2 Bat’s Head, Dorset
Behold mighty Jurassic coast in its winter coat! Photographer Andy Farrer won this year’s Landscape Photographer of the Year prize with this breathtaking image capturing the contrasting elements of warm-coloured sand and frosty cliffs.

Charlie Waite, founder of the LPOTY awards and one of Britain’s leading landscape photographers said: “Andy’s winning photograph of this beautiful area of Dorset’s Jurassic Coast is a gentle image with a simple, effective composition that reflects the mood of a cold, winter’s morning.

“It is believable and appealing, with the snow adding an interesting dimension to a classic scene.”

SEE MORE
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3 Five Girls 2014
This photo by David Stewart tells a story that all of us can relate to in the age of smartphones and social media – the girls, although wearing very similar clothes to indicate that they’re part of the same group, aren’t interacting.

There’s a sense of distance between them, even though they’re sat very close to each other. Stewart’s photograph, which won the Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2015, is actually a repeat of a photo that Stewart took of the same girls five years ago when they started their GCSEs – and that photo was also exhibited in the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize exhibition in 2008.

SEE MORE: 10 quick portrait photography tips for working with what you’re given

4 The Ballerinas
Flowers are naturally beautiful, but it takes skill to convey that beauty creatively. Magdalena Wasiczek achieved that with her winter portrait of Hydrangea petiolaris, which won the International Garden Photographer of the Year 2015 competition.

IGPOTY judge Clive Nichols said: “What I particularly like about the shot is the way the photographer has melted the rich purples and oranges of the hydrangea into the out of focus
background, creating a delicious melange of colours.

“The focus on the single delicate hydrangea flower is spot on, creating a striking and unusual winter portrait.”

SEE MORE: 25 flower photography tips for beginners

5 Eclipse Totality over Sassendalen
This solar eclipse of 20 March 2015 was photographed from Svalbard in Norway, but the serenity of the shot makes it look like a scene from another planet. It’s no wonder that photographer Luc Janet was named Insight Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2015 for his efforts.

Pete Lawrence, competition judge and world class astrophotographer, said: “This is just a supremely beautiful image, which got joint admiration from all of the judges.

“The colours are perfect and the blend of the isolated snowy landscape frames the surreal majesty of the totally eclipsed Sun perfectly. It’s an incredibly peaceful image.”

SEE MORE: How to photograph the moon: an easy way to shoot moon pictures full of detail

6 Xyclops
The facial expression, the details, the fascinating tools – this photo of a watch repairman in Doha perfectly captures a moment in the day of a tradesman applying his universal craft.

The photo, taken by Oscar Rialubin, won this year’s Urban Photographer of the Year competition where the brief was ‘cities at work.’

Martin Samworth, Chief Executive Officer at CBRE which sponsors the competition, said: “The competition constantly provides us with new perspectives on working environments within cities.”

SEE MORE: 11 things non-photographers just don’t understand about photography

7 Jon and Alex
This intimate photo of a couple in St Petersburg highlights the plight of gay couples in Russia, where sexual minorities are facing discrimination, harassment and violent hate crime attacks from conservative religious and nationalistic groups.

Taken by Mads Nissen and commissioned by the Danish broadsheet Berlingske, the photo was awarded World Press Photo of the Year 2015.

SEE MORE: 8 ways to tell better stories with your photography

8 Impalas locking horns
Everything, from the triangle composition of the two fighting impalas and the third approaching, to the graphic lines made by their interlocked horns and the look in the eyes of the right-hand-side impala, conspires to make this a great photo.

The photographer, Barbara Stanley, was named Royal Society of Biology Photographer of the Year for this striking image taken in Namibia.

SEE MORE: Wildlife pictures – 5 classic compositions (and why they work)

9 Still Life 2014
French photographer Valérie Belin won the sixth Prix Pictet Photography Prize with her memento mori of cheap plastic goods depicting this year’s competition theme, disorder.

Belin said: “These still lifes offer a jarring commentary on the effects of our obsession with cheap objects, for not only is their material (plastic) emblematic of the wasteful use of raw materials, but it also represents a grotesque kind of immortality because of its non-biodegradable nature – an immortality that, one could say, is slowly killing the planet.”

SEE MORE: Famous Photographers – 100 things we wish we knew starting out

10 Smoked Wings
What’s a little cigarette smoke next to the smoke of the coal smoke of the barbecue? You can almost feel the heat in the kitchen in this atmospheric shot, taken by David Griffen in Kuala Lumpur, which won the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year competition.

Chairman of the Judges, food writer Jay Rayner said, “This man is supremely comfortable in this kitchen. He knows what he’s doing and that’s why he can basically multi-task. He’s smoking two things at once – and one of them is himself.”

SEE MORE: Famous Photographers – 225 tips to inspire you

11 Fog in Germany
Here’s a view you don’t see often. The image of calm windmills looming out of the fog in Germany was taken by SkyPro, a user of Dronestagram which, as its name suggests, is an Instagram-like platform for aerial photography.

As well as being unusual and visually stunning, it carries an important message about the climate. It was awarded first prize in Dronestagram’s Small Drones Big Changes photo contest where the challenge was to illustrate climate change and its possible solutions.

SEE MORE: 35 things photographers do wrong (and how to stop doing them)

12 Passing Through
A winner in Clifton Cameras’ ‘Streetlife’ competition this year, Jim Moody’s image stood out from the crowd of street photography because of its high vantage point. Rarely do we get to see a street shot from such an unusual angle.

“The strong angles of the buildings added to the great composition of the shot,” said competition judge Matt Hart.

“The arrow-shaped shadow pointing in to the darkness makes you think, but at the same time you want to know more about the woman standing with her arms folded, making this a great Street image.”

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