Intro
The Environmental Photography Award
The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation's Environmental Photography Award was launched in 2021, in honour of the Foundation’s 15th anniversary. This annual award was created with the aim of rewarding photographers who put their creativity to good use in raising awareness on Earth protection.
It has the dual purpose of celebrating the incredible beauty of our planet and highlighting the environmental challenges we face through five categories: Polar Wonders, Into the Forest, Ocean Worlds, Humanity versus Nature, Change Makers: Reasons for Hope.
Photographic art, with its immediate and universal language, represents a formidable vehicle for raising awareness. It reinforces, in a virtuous way, the process of awareness on major environmental issues, such as biodiversity, climate and the ocean.
Environmental photographers can encourage us to change, to innovate, to invent sustainable solutions in order to better rethink our lives and our economies. They reveal a real “field of possibilities” for new generations who aspire to a more harmonious relationship with Nature.
The photographs – almost 11,000 images participated in the 3rd edition of the competition in 2024 – are carefully selected by a jury of internationally renowned professional photographers for their technical and aesthetic excellence but also, and above all, for the relevance and strength of their message.
The exhibitions of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation's Environmental Photography Award have already travelled to Italy, San Marino, Spain, the United States and France.
Categories
01
Images depicting landscapes, wildlife and local communities in the Arctic and Antarctic polar regions illustrated as pristine areas to be preserved.
The Arctic polar region includes the North of Russia, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Iceland, Alaska, Canada, Greenland. The Antarctic polar region includes the Sub-Antarctic Islands (South Georgia, Marion and Prince Edward Islands, Crozet and Kerguelen Archipelagos, Heard and McDonald Islands and Macquarie Island).
02
Images highlighting the beauty of the flora and fauna that make up the forest ecosystem and the lives of native communities in the boreal, temperate and tropical forests.
03
Images that illustrate the richness of our seas and oceans, whether on or under the surface, and showcase the diversity of marine wildlife.
Images of rivers and lakes should not be submitted.
04
Images that depict the conflicting relationship between humans and nature, and the negative impact of human activities on the environment: issues related to the consequences of climate change (droughts, wildfires, extreme climate events…), the loss of biodiversity (endangered species, disastrous interactions between humans and wildlife…), as well as the depletion of the world’s water resources.
05
Images that highlight the efforts and actions implemented globally by communities and organisations that help build a more sustainable world and more harmonious relationship between man and nature. It aims to demonstrate hope for Humanity and for the Planet. Images should include a human element or impact, and not focus purely on the technologies involved.
Prizing
(chosen by the jury among the 5 category winners)
- 5,000 € grant
- Invitation (including travel and accommodation) to the opening ceremony of the exhibition in the Principality of Monaco
- 1,000 € grant for each of the 5 category winners
(to be chosen for each across all categories)
- 500 € grant for the Public Award winning image as well as an invitation (including travel and accommodation) to visit the SEK International University's Amazon research station in Ecuador
- 500 € grant for the Student’s Choice winning image
-Featured in the Environmental Photography Award 2025 exhibition in Monaco and on its international tour
-Published in, and receiving two complimentary copies of the Environmental Photography Award 2025 book
The Jury
For each of the five categories, the jury will choose a winning image and 2 runners-up. The jury will choose the grand prize winner (Environmental Photographer 2025) among the category winners.
The Public Award and the Students’ Choice Award will be voted for online, starting on 31 March 2025, for a period of two weeks.
A total of 36 photographs will be selected for the 2025 edition, its exhibition and publication.
Gallery
Discover the photographs from the 2025 edition on 31 March, when voting opens to the public, and then the names of the winners on 15 April.
Pool Flamingos
The Heart of the Andes
New Hope for the City of Falcons
Unseen Unsung Heroes
Beauty Languages
Training Day
Female Fight
Portrait of a Leafy Seadragon
Camouflaged in the Garbage Dump
Rangiroa Gang
Jellyfish and Iceberg
The Whale’s Raft
Caring for the Unseen Giants
Little Giant’s Walk
The Swing of the Thurible
God in the Shadows
After the Flames, Hope
Sleeping in group
Breeding Machine
A Fortress Made of Spruce Needles
Coho Salmon in a Log Structure
Ephemeral
Jurassic World
Walrus
The Passenger
Hope
Forest guard
Surrogate Mothers
No Air in the Pit
Clash of Kings
Bald Eagle Fishing
Power
Hooked
Urban Encroachment
Sniff
Night Stalker
Book
A book is published for each edition (bilingual French-English version), including all the shortlisted photographs, accompanied by explanatory texts. To be published in June 2025.
2025 Edition
Hardcover, 28.5 x 25 cm, 104 pages
