Atmospheric Scenes and Layered Interpretations Top the 2026 Hasselblad Masters Contest

In Pioche, Nevada, a movie theater built in 1937 stands in tribute to the immense changes in technology and style over nearly a century. A bold portrait set against a black background by photographer Kevin Boyle captures not only the aging building but a mid-20th-century pastime that taps into nostalgia and small town identity. (Amid preservation efforts, the theater is currently being rehabilitated.) It’s just one of the works in the artist’s ongoing Movieland series, which won the Architecture category in this year’s Hasselblad Masters 2026 contest.

Additional categories in the prestigious competition include Wildlife, Landscape, Art, Portrait, Street, and Project//21, which highlights work by entrants aged 21 or younger. This year, photographers in 160 countries submitted more than 108,000 images, which were narrowed down to 70 finalists.

a portrait of two twin girls with their faces near one another — Svetlana Jovanovic, from ‘Otherness’

In addition to their technical aptitude, the artists illuminate lesser-known pockets of the world by examining distinctive social issues, nature, and geographies. The winning photos are atmospheric and even surreal, such as Rohan Reilly’s low-exposure Ephemeral Visions series of rows of trees and Gosse Bouma’s misty depictions of Netherlandish market stalls in Morning Ritual.

Svetlana Jovanovic turns her lens to bold dual portraits of identical twins, and Alfred Minnaar’s otherworldly captures of underwater vitality topped the Wildlife category. Panitbhand Paribatra Na Ayudhya, winner of the Project//21 category, is a 14-year-old scuba diver from Thailand who explores the beauty, fragility, and biodiversity of the ocean in beautiful portrayals of marine life.

Hasselblad Foundation executive director Kalle Sanner says, “Across categories, the strongest work operated on more than one level simultaneously: legible on first encounter, yet resistant to easy interpretation. These are images that require attention, that continue to unfold the longer you stay with them.” For example, Yudha Kusuma Putera’s uncanny photographs of huddled cows’ backs nod to the unseen. What we don’t see is as significant as what we do, as these animals are actually grazing on heaps of trash in a dump on the outskirts of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Exploring notions of labor and visibility, Putera takes a visually literal approach to “out of sight, out of mind.”

See all the winning images on the Hasselblad Masters website.

a fine art photograph of the backs of cows against a blue sky with clouds that appears almost abstract — Yudha Kusuma Putera, from ‘Waste Colonialism (Sapi-Sapi Piyungan)’

an atmospheric photo of a street food vendor on a misty early morning, with a towering gothic building in the background and warm light emanating from beneath their booth — Grosse Bouma, from ‘Morning Ritual’

an up-close photograph of coral underwater — Alfred Minnaar, from ‘The Forest I Roam’

an atmospherically illuminated photograph of a vintage theater against an eerily deep black background — Kevin Boyle, from ‘DaySleeper | Movieland’

a fine art photograph of the backs of cattle against a blue sky with clouds that appears almost abstract — Yudha Kusuma Putera, from ‘Waste Colonialism (Sapi-Sapi Piyungan)’

an atmospheric photo of neat rows of birch trees sitting in reflective, watery ground — Rohan Reilly, from ‘Ephemeral Visions’

a photograph of a deep-sea tentacled creature — Panitbhand Paribatra Na Ayudhya, from ‘Dwellers of the Night’

a portrait of two identical twin women standing cheek to cheek — Svetlana Jovanovic, from ‘Otherness’

an atmospheric photo of a street food vendor on a misty early morning, with warm light emanating from beneath their tent — Grosse Bouma, from ‘Morning Ritual’

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