Now in its landmark 20th year of competition, see nature up close through stunning images by professional, emerging and junior photographers who have shown impeccable timing, patience, artistry and technique to capture incredible moments in time.

Congratulations to 2023 Overall Winner, Samuel Markham

A harrowing moment captured at the heart of a bushfire in Parma Creek Nature Reserve, New South Wales, has claimed top prize in the 2023 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year competition and exhibition opening at the South Australian Museum on 26 August. Markham’s winning shot, ‘My Country Burns’, was taken in the final days of 2019, in a bushfire season that remains seared into memory around Australia and the world.

This year’s winners include moments of riotous colour and fleeting scenes of peace and tranquillity, from 17-year-old Junior winner Isabella Alexis’ macro portrait of a wolf spider (family Lycosidae) guarding its young, to past winner Matty Smith’s shot of an inky showdown between male cuttlefish (Sepia apama) during courting season, which topped the Animals in Nature category.

Other highlights include Portfolio winner Lewis Burnett’s suite of aerial shots that portray a range of species from a pygmy blue whale to a saltwater crocodile swimming in tranquil waters from Ningaloo Reef to Timor-Leste. Joshua Rozell’s stunning Our Impact-winning image of the night sky in Western Australia’s Pinnacles Desert criss-crossed with unregulated satellites highlights how humanity’s encroachment into natural environments is no longer bound by gravity, creating a legacy of light pollution and space junk distilled in its title: ‘Swamped Skies’.

This breathtaking exhibition allows us to witness the unique beauty of the flora, fauna and landscapes of our own backyard and the world around us. This year’s exhibition also features the new Macro photography category, bringing nature's tiniest organisms into sharp focus.

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Sir Edward Charles Stirling Indexes