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WEEKLY SELECTION 1 - 2026 PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR

Thursday, 26 February 2026

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Our Photographer of the Year 2026 is open for submissions. The overall winner, runners-up, and their partners will journey to Nyungwe National Park in Rwanda, staying at the newly built Munazi Lodge, the only lodge inside the park. Expect chimpanzee trekking, canopy walks high above the forest floor, waterfall hikes, and encounters with black-and-white colobus monkeys in one of Africa’s most biodiverse montane forests. Read more about the Photographer of the Year 2026 prizes here. In association with Ukuri and African Parks.

Photographer of the Year is open for entries from 16 February 2026 to midnight on 7 May 2026. Judging will take place from February to June, and the winners will be announced in June.

Here are the best Photographer of the Year submissions for this week

Big five safari — Amid the Great Migration’s chaos, a male lion targets a calf who had strayed from the herd – the ancient calculus of predator and prey. Serengeti National Park, Tanzania © Tristan Picard

African safari — Camera shy. The mother elephant turns away, ushering her family onward. Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. © Karen Pleasant

Africa Geographic Travel

Africa Geographic Photographer of the Year — Silver mullet funnel through a narrow tidal gulley where two oceans meet and currents choreograph the surge. Agulhus National Park, South Africa © Geo Cloete

African safari — At sunset, this leopard was catching doves from a dam wall in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Striking multiple times, successful on every try, showing that in the race for survival, anything goes. Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, South Africa. © Abrie du Plessis

Big Five safari — A lone rhino crosses a stark salt pan in Namibia, a prehistoric silhouette between cracked earth and brooding sky. Namibia. © Ian Ground

Africa Geographic photographer of the Year — Little feet…big future. A baby mountain gorilla cuddling with his mother in Bwindi. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda. © Boone Thomson

Africa Geographic Travel

Africa Geographic safari — A young male leopard in Laikipia clings to the safety of a tree branch, his freshly caught dik-dik draped beneath him. Still inexperienced, he had nearly lost his prize when the dik-dik’s alarm calls summoned spotted hyenas, and even the leopard’s own father, to the scene. Outnumbered and outranked, he retreated upward, guarding his hard-earned meal while danger lingered below. Laikipia, Kenya. © Anique van der Kuil

When scavengers converge, diplomacy ends – a jackal calculates its chances in Savute’s unforgiving arena. Savute, Botswana © Helgardt Pretorius

“We had reports of a buffalo that had died in some deep mud in a nearby dry riverbed. We found a pride of sub-adult lions around the carcass. Most of the lions were defending the carcass from the nearby vultures. One lioness moved to feed on the carcass, and I snapped the shot from above my head. In that moment, her eyes met the camera.” South Luangwa National Park, Zambia. © Darren Donovan

A young male cheetah surveys the photographer, all impatience and latent speed. Kruger National Park, South Africa. © Moxie De Leon

Africa Geographic Travel

Barely weaned and already hunting – meerkat pups move quickly from suckling to eating solids. Kalahari, South Africa. © Geo Cloete

Photographer of the Year 2026 — Rain-soaked and luminous, a tree frog clings to its perch in the misty hush of the Transkei. Transkei, South Africa © Jean Goldstone

One watchful eye in a living tide of wildebeest sweeping across the Mara’s dust-churned plains. Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya. © Boone Thomson

Photographer of the Year 2026 — The Okavango reflected in a leopard’s eye. Okavango Delta, Botswana. © Moxie De Leon

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