GLF Photography Awards 2026 Results: Winners and Exhibition Details
The Global Landscapes Forum has announced the three winners of its 2026 Photography Awards, selected from 35 shortlisted photographs and nearly 600 submissions about rangelands and pastoralist communities.
Deadline not clearly published; check the official source before planning around this.
The Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) Photography Awards 2026 are now a completed photography competition, not an open call for entries. GLF published its results on 28 April 2026, announcing three winners chosen from 35 shortlisted photographs and nearly 600 submissions. The official results article is the current source for this opportunity and replaces the earlier application page as the useful destination for readers.
There is no active 2026 application deadline listed in the results announcement. No new photographs are being requested through this page, and the former Typeform submission link should not be treated as an open application route. The practical value of this listing is now archival: it records the winning work, explains the exhibition plans, and points readers to GLF’s official announcement.
At a Glance: GLF Photography Awards 2026 Results
| Detail | Current information |
|---|---|
| Opportunity status | Results announced; 2026 submission cycle closed |
| Official results date | 28 April 2026 |
| Organiser | Global Landscapes Forum (GLF) |
| Subject | Rangelands and the communities that steward them |
| Winners | Three award recipients: first prize, second prize and popular vote |
| Selection pool | 35 shortlisted photographs from nearly 600 submissions |
| Exhibition | Online and at GLF Africa 2026 in Nairobi, Kenya; further GLF and partner events are planned |
| Cash support | The official results article says the three winners receive cash prizes, but does not state the amounts |
| Current deadline | None: the 2026 cycle has already announced its results |
| Current application materials | None requested; the competition is not presented as an open call |
The Three Winning Photographs
GLF’s announcement identifies one winner in each of three categories. The images were selected for creativity, photographic quality, composition and execution of the Awards theme. The results give each photograph a distinct setting and a different way into the relationship between people, animals and grazing ecosystems.
First prize: “Gold rush” by Vivek Goyal
The first-prize photograph, “Gold rush,” was taken by Vivek Goyal in Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia. GLF presents the image as a view of rangelands that asks the audience to look beyond postcard scenery and recognise the gaucho, along with pastoralists elsewhere, as an essential steward of valuable ecosystems.
That context matters. A photograph of Patagonia could easily be read only as a dramatic wilderness image. The award’s description connects the scenery to the people who work within it, making pastoral labour and stewardship part of the story rather than a background detail. Readers who want to understand why the image won should pay attention to that combination of place, human presence and the wider role of pastoralists.
Second prize: “The golden moment of the plains” by Myo Minn Aung
The second-prize photograph, “The golden moment of the plains,” was taken by Myo Minn Aung in Bagan, Myanmar. GLF says the photograph documents the authenticity of rural life and the connection between people, grazing lands and the natural environment.
This selection broadens the geographic range of the awards. The results are not limited to one region or one visual idea of pastoralism. The Bagan image is described through rural life and connection, while the competition as a whole asks viewers to see rangelands as lived and managed places. That emphasis helps explain why the award is relevant to documentary, conservation and place-based photographers even though the application period has ended.
Popular vote: “The herders of thousands of Merak village cows” by Ahmad Wahyudi
The popular-vote winner, “The herders of thousands of Merak village cows,” was taken by Ahmad Wahyudi in Merak, located in Baluran National Park, Situbondo Regency, Indonesia. According to the announcement, the photograph was made spontaneously in the morning as a shepherd and his cows walked toward the Baluran forest. GLF describes the area as remote and rarely seen by outsiders.
The popular-vote result adds a public-response dimension to the judged awards. It also reinforces the geographic breadth of the cycle: the winning photographs span Chilean Patagonia, Myanmar and Indonesia, while the shortlisted work came from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.
What the Competition Was About
GLF defines rangelands as ecosystems grazed by livestock or wildlife. The category includes grasslands, savannas, woodlands, shrublands, deserts and tundra. In the official announcement, GLF says these areas cover 54% of Earth’s land surface and support about 2 billion livelihoods worldwide.
That definition is wider than the familiar image of an open grassy plain. It includes places where grazing shapes vegetation, movement, work and culture, whether the setting is a dry shrubland, a wooded area, a desert route or a cold high-latitude environment. The awards therefore treated the theme as a relationship between ecosystems and communities, not as a request for generic scenic views.
The announcement says the photographs show everyday moments in rangelands and their communities. That wording is useful when reading the results. The winning work is not presented simply as a set of technically polished nature photographs. GLF links the images to pastoralists, rural life, herding and the stewardship of land. The human and ecological context is central to the result.
How the Winners Were Selected
The three winners were chosen from 35 shortlisted photographs. GLF says those photographs came from nearly 600 submissions. The judging criteria named in the announcement were creativity, photographic quality, composition and execution of the Awards theme.
The official article also identifies the judging panel:
- Carlos Espinosa, documentary filmmaker and conservation photographer from Ecuador.
- Edliadi Mokhammad, senior digital producer at the Global Landscapes Forum from Indonesia.
- Mayuresh Hendre, wildlife filmmaker, photographer and naturalist from India.
- Victoria Wanjohi, wildlife conservation scientist, natural-world filmmaker and storyteller from Kenya.
The panel’s composition reflects the range of work the competition was trying to evaluate. It brought together documentary practice, conservation photography, wildlife filmmaking, digital production and storytelling. Victoria Wanjohi described the entries as showing that rangelands and pastoralism are global and diverse, and said the photographs addressed both why rangelands need protection and how they support communities.
The results article does not publish a new scoring table, application rule set or future call. It is therefore better to treat the named criteria as an explanation of the completed selection than as instructions for a current submission.
Exhibition and Viewing Details
GLF says the finalists and the other 32 shortlisted entries are available in an online exhibition. The photographs are also to be showcased at GLF Africa 2026 in Nairobi, Kenya. The announcement adds that the winning entries will appear at several GLF and partner events throughout the year.
This means the cycle’s main follow-up is public viewing rather than submission. The official results page links readers onward to the online exhibition and the GLF Africa event information. Those destinations may provide the most useful access to the images, event timing and any practical exhibition updates. This listing keeps the GLF news article as its primary external URL because it is the official page that confirms the winners and the exhibition plan in one place.
The exhibition also gives the shortlisted photographs a life beyond the announcement. GLF specifically says that all 35 shortlisted images are represented: the three winning photographs and the remaining 32 entries. For photographers, the result is therefore not only a ranking of three images. It is a curated public presentation of work about rangelands across multiple regions and visual approaches.
Awards, Amounts and Current Status
The official results article says the three winners will receive cash prizes. It does not state the prize amounts in the announcement. The earlier application listing included prize figures, but those figures should not be presented here as if the current results page had confirmed them. Readers who need payment details should rely on direct communication from GLF or the competition’s official terms rather than an older application summary.
The competition is closed for the 2026 cycle. There is no current deadline to plan around, no current application form to complete and no confirmed future cycle described in the official results article. GLF may publish another call later, but this page does not claim that one has been announced. A future edition would need its own official announcement, dates, rules and submission route.
Eligibility and Application Materials: What Applies Now
Because the results have been announced, the former application-oriented eligibility guidance is no longer a current instruction. The official results article does not establish a new eligibility window or invite additional entries. It also does not ask readers to submit photographs, captions, contact details or supporting materials now.
In practical terms, there are no current application steps for this 2026 cycle. Do not send a new photograph through the old Typeform on the strength of the previous guide, and do not interpret the existence of an accessible form as proof that submissions remain open. The authoritative current action is to view the results and exhibition material through GLF’s official channels.
For anyone considering a future GLF photography call, the completed cycle still provides useful signals about editorial fit: the subject was rangelands and pastoral communities; the selected work connected visual quality with place and lived experience; and the judging language valued creativity, composition and theme execution. Those are observations about the announced results, not promises about the rules of a future competition.
Why This Results Page Matters
The GLF Photography Awards 2026 offer a concise record of how a global environmental photography competition can frame its subject. Rangelands are often reduced to scenery, livestock or a broad conservation slogan. The winning descriptions instead place people, animals, land and stewardship in the same frame. That makes the results relevant to readers interested in photography, pastoral livelihoods, conservation communication and land-use storytelling.
The geographic spread is also significant. The winning images come from Chile, Myanmar and Indonesia, and GLF says the shortlisted submissions represented Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. That does not make the collection a complete portrait of every rangeland community, but it does show the organisers’ stated interest in a worldwide subject rather than a single national contest.
The best way to use this opportunity page now is as a guide to the completed cycle: read the official announcement, look through the online exhibition, and check GLF Africa 2026 information if you want to see how the work is being presented in Nairobi. There is no active application CTA here because the official results have already closed the loop on submissions.
Official Source
The current source is GLF’s results announcement, “GLF Photography Awards 2026 showcases the world’s rangelands, from Indonesia to Chile.” It was published on 28 April 2026 and contains the winner names, photograph titles, locations, shortlisted-entry count, submission count and exhibition details recorded above.