Architectural photography is a compelling discipline, far more than documentation, and these powerful artistic expressions capture the essence of design and dialogue between human creation and the surrounding landscape. The art of photography enhances architectural narrative and freezes the moment and time in a frame. These unique competitions presented award-winning images that reflect the power of design to inspire, challenge, and connect.
As we move through 2026, the architectural world continues to draw inspiration from the definitive visual narratives captured during the 2024-2025 award season. Celebrating the intersection of structural engineering and fine art, these photographs do more than document buildings; they stir emotion, provoke thought, and showcase the timeless interplay of light, scale, and design.
The following winners and shortlisted entries from the world’s most prestigious competitions offer a curated look at the structures that shaped our recent past and continue to influence the architectural trends of today. Celebrating the intersection of architecture and visual storytelling, each year, the international architectural photography community unveils photographs that not only tell a story but also stir emotion, provoke thought, and showcase the interplay of light, scale, and design.
The Architecture Photography MasterPrize Competition
The Architecture Photography MasterPrize (APMP), a global competition dedicated to architectural photography, sets itself apart from other photography awards by focusing entirely on how photographers engage with the built environment. It honors images that best capture the spirit, delta, functionality, and context of architecture.
Albrecht Voss – Exterior Architecture Photography of the Year
Studio: Albrecht Voss Photography
Photographer’s Name: Albrecht Voss
Title of the Photo: Cabane du Glacier de Tortin
Style: Precise, dramatic, and a blend of commercial and fine art.
Artist Background & Gear: He is a master of lighting, using natural and artificial light to create a specific mood. His night photography is particularly notable for its ability to isolate a subject. He uses a Hasselblad X2D 100C camera and employs drone technology for aerial shots, and uses specific Vallerret photography gloves.
Designed by Norwegian architect Snorre Stinessen, the Cabane du Glacier de Tortin is a robust, off-grid luxury ski resort located in Switzerland at an altitude of about 3000 meters. The project is a model of sustainability, integrating advanced eco-friendly technologies such as solar panels, pellet-fueled heating, and water sourced from a natural spring. The resort offers breathtaking views of the Alps’ peaks.
Albrecht Voss, known globally for his night photography, captured a powerful image of a cabin that is isolated and in contrast to the surrounding natural environment. It was awarded for its sense of monumental isolation. The composition features the cabin in a stark, dark mountain backdrop. As the moon set around 3 a.m., the photographer ensured to take a shot after a shot, noticing a glow of light, northern light, that highlighted the building’s architectural lines and texture, making it stand out as a solitary yet powerful subject.
Franco Casaccia – Interior Architecture Photography of the Year
Studio: Franco Casaccia
Photographer’s Name: Franco Casaccia
Title of the Photo: In Orbit – K21
Style: Documentary with an artistic sensibility.
Artist Background & Gear: He often forgoes a tripod and minimizes post-processing to maintain a sense of authenticity and immediacy.
Notable Works: His body of work focuses on storytelling and the human element in architecture, capturing both exteriors and interiors.
“In Orbit,” a renowned large-scale installation by artist Tomás Saraceno, was exhibited at K21, part of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen museum in Düsseldorf, Germany. Constructed from transparent steel mesh that spans three levels covering 2500 square meters, it was suspended over 25 meters above the museum’s atrium. The installation resembled outer space with five air-filled spheres floating within the vast web-like mesh structure.
The photograph was awarded for its masterful composition captured from inside the installation. Casaccia expertly showcased a sculptural space defined by its fluid circular forms and a dynamic play of light and dark. The composition draws the viewer’s eye into a complex geometric space that evokes the sense of depth and movement, transforming the interior into a visual experience.
The Sony World Photography Awards Competition
Every year, the Sony World Photography Awards gives us a glimpse of the world captured by talented photographers and translated into their language behind the lens. In its 2025 edition, the award featured stunning images that explore space, symmetry, emotion, and human impact through architecture, illustrating cultural identity, diversity, elemental details, geometric forms, and colors to evoke mood or monumental scale from urban cities to remote nature-adjacent places. The competition is divided into two main tracks: the Professional Competition for a body of work (series) and the Open Competition for a single image.
Ulana Switucha – Winner, Professional Competition, Architecture & Design
Photographer’s Name: Ulana Switucha
Title of the Series: The Tokyo Toilet Project
Style: Minimalist and contemplative.
Techniques: Influenced by a Japanese aesthetic, Switucha’s style is defined by light, tone, and shape.
The project commissioned 16 globally recognized architects and designers—including Tadao Ando, Shigeru Ban, and Kengo Kuma—to create 17 public restrooms that are as much works of art as they are functional spaces. An urban redevelopment initiative in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan, focused on constructing modern public restrooms that stand out for their artistic architectural design and serve as an innovative urban landmark.
Ulana Switucha, a photographer with over 30 years of experience in Asia, won first prize in the Architecture & Design category for her series. Her distinctive style of capturing simple and minimalist compositions highlights her awareness of light, tone, and shape, effectively capturing the Tokyo Toilet Project’s architectural aesthetics against the backdrop of Shibuya’s busy urban environment. Her images showcase artistic qualities as facilities subtly merge with urban life.
Xuecheng Liu (China Mainland)—Winner, Open Competition, Architecture
Photographer’s Name: Xuecheng Liu
Title of the Photo: Centre of the Cosmos
Style: Bold, high-resolution, and symbolic.
Techniques: Liu uses an ultra-wide aerial perspective and high-pixel rendering to create powerful visual metaphors.
Notable Works: Urban photography
The winner of the Sony World Photography Awards 2025, Architecture category, was Xuecheng Liu (China Mainland). Centre of the Cosmos, a striking image of an ultra-wide aerial view of Times Square, New York City, rendered in 400 million pixels, exaggerates scale and perspective using a lens equivalent to 5 mm on a full-frame camera. The photograph resembles the dense urban core like a sprawling universe of light and concrete, symbolizing Times Square as the center of modern global cities.
Thibault Drutel – Shortlisted, Professional Competition
Photographer’s Name: Thibault Drutel
Title of the Series: Colourful Doors
Style: Minimalist, geometric, and a celebration of public space.
Techniques: Controls color, perspective, and timing to transform utilitarian public spaces into works of art.
Notable Works: Symmetric Subway
Thibault Drutel is a French photographer globally famous for his careful composition of color, perspective, and timing to capture a sense of stillness within motion. In Symmetric Subway, a series celebrated for transforming utilitarian space into art, he waits for the perfect moment to capture mundane shots. He highlights symmetry, geometric patterns, and unique lighting in public spaces, revealing architectural drama.
Thibault Drutel, with a minimalist approach blending urban exploration and geometric forms, captured a seemingly ordinary architectural space. In the Sony World Photography Awards 2025 entry, colorful doors demonstrated intricate architectural geometry and vibrant colors of an interior facade with many doors in a clear, minimal composition.
International Photography Awards (IPA) Competition
The International Photography Awards (IPA), established in 2003, is a globally recognized annual competition for professional, amateur, and student photographers across a wide range of categories, including architecture. It aimed to celebrate photographers and their talent and promote the art of photography.
Romain Thiery – Architecture Photographer of the Year
Photographer’s Name: Romain Thiery
Title of the Photo: “Requiem pour Pianos”
Style: Poetic, melancholic, and conceptual.
Notable Works: Requiem pour Pianos
Artist Background & Gear: A unique form of architectural storytelling using a Sony a7R IV camera with a 16-35mm lens. This gear is ideal for his low-light, wide-angle interior shots
A unique long-term photographic series that captured abandoned pianos in various forgotten locations and decaying spaces, primarily in Europe and the United States. Romain Thiery brilliantly captured the juxtaposition of musical instruments, symbols of culture and elegance, with the decaying, crumbling interiors of old buildings.
A unique long-term photographic series that captured abandoned pianos in various forgotten locations and decaying spaces, primarily in Europe and the United States. Romain Thiery brilliantly captured the juxtaposition of musical instruments, symbols of culture and elegance, with the decaying, crumbling interiors of old buildings.
His image showcases a moment frozen in time that tells a tale of memory, decay, and the passing of time. “Requiem pour Pianos” was his personal approach to architectural photography, making this series stand out for its poignant and melancholic atmosphere, and for transforming architectural spaces into silent stages for these forgotten instruments.
Gleici Rufatto – Professional Category Winner
Photographer’s Name: Gleici Rufatto
Title of the Photo: Line, Form, and Color
Style: Abstract and minimalistic.
Techniques: Perceptual observation to turn urban landscapes into abstract canvases
An abstract photographic series that explores geometric shapes, neutral colours, and light within the built environment. The idea of the series was to transform architectural elements such as walls, windows, and urban structures into a collection of sharp lines, clean form, and solid blocks of colors, stripping away from its surrounding context and completely focusing on abstract art.
Gleici Rufatto was named the Architecture Photographer of the Year in the professional category at the 2024 International Photography Awards (IPA). The series highlighted her minimalistic and artistic approach to architectural photography and thinking beyond perceptual forms. The photographs reveal a profound depth of harmony within urban landscapes, turning them into a canvas of color and geometry.
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