In the right hands, smartphones are capable of producing impressive photos, as these images show.
These are all photos taken with mobile phones and tablets that wowed the judges at the 2022 Mobile Photography Awards (MPA).
The competition has been running for 11 years and has received 5,500 entries from over 90 countries.
Six expert judges determined the photographs of the champions by selecting winners from a shortlist in 12 different categories, including Landscape, Black and White and Silhouette.
First place went to Shanghai amateur photographer Liu Kunkun, whose portfolio, shot with an Apple iPhone12 ProMax, earned him MPA Photographer of the Year. Judge Rodrigo Rivas said of his work, “He has a superb command of geometry and perspective, and combined with color and minimalism, he conveys a photographic, personal style in his own voice.”
Scroll on to see our favorites from the judges, from fog-shrouded castles in Germany to vibrant rainbows in the Arizona desert. At the very bottom is a frame from the prize portfolio…
“The Mystical World of Kamchatka” is a fitting title for this stunning photo by Rina Gromova shortlisted in the Landscape & Wildlife category. It captures the dominant peak of the Klyuchevskaya volcano on the icy Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East, surrounded by a lenticular UFO cloud.
Photographer Wendy Bauer took this mesmerizing shot while flying over the Kimberley coast in Western Australia. Shortlisted in the Landscape & Wildlife category, the photo shows winding coastal rivers, hidden coves and untouched wilderness from a bird’s eye view.
LEFT: This bold figure perched on the edge of a cliff was beautifully captured by Carlos Martinez. The moody shot shortlisted for the Silhouette category is titled “Earth’s End”. RIGHT: Photographer Martinez got a second photo, this time in the Travel & Transportation category, for this dreamy shot titled “A Door to Autumn.”
Germany’s fog-shrouded Liechtenstein Castle and its neo-Gothic architecture are the subject of an iPhone shot by German photographer Mariko Klug. The mesmerizing image was shortlisted in the Travel & Transportation category.
Colorado photographer Kelly Dallas took this stunning shot with her iPhone while hiking in Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes National Park. “My iPhone was the perfect tool to capture this… the curve of the dunes, the clouds hugging the mountains,” she said, describing the photo shortlisted in the Landscape category.
This vibrant rainbow was captured by Arizona-based photographer Joseph Kier and was shortlisted in the Landscape & Wildlife category. The impressive photo was taken in the Sonoran Desert, the only place in the world where saguaro cacti (pictured) grow wild.
Another Syrah favorite of ours, Guardians in the Snow was filmed in Saguaro National Park, Arizona and was shortlisted in the Landscape & Wildlife category. Turning the idea of a scorching desert on its head, photographer Cyr shows that cacti are just as majestic in snowy weather.
This shot from Garrin Tsang offers stunning views of Yosemite National Park. Here, a Canadian photographer captures natural light streaming over a valley from an angle that earned the photo a shortlist in the Black and White category.
In this image titled “Megapolis” by photographer Zhengjie Wu, a huge city threatens to overwhelm the viewer. The image was shortlisted in the Architecture/Design/Still Life category.
Mount Jarla Shampo plays an important role in Tibetan mythology, and Chinese photographer Chen Ma captured it here in all its mystical splendor. This stunning photo was shortlisted in the Black and White category.
Shimmering beams of light pierce leafy branches in this stunning Landscape and Wildlife shortlisted painting by Leonardo Prenol called Fog and Sunbeams.
Irina Tsernyak wowed the judges with this sweet photo titled “Beauty and Strength”, which was shortlisted in the “Landscape and Wildlife” category.
LEFT: In this Travel & Transport category by Emma Mullan, an intrepid cyclist exits the entrance to the Ballywoil Tunnel in Ireland. Built in 1878, the former railway tunnel is an architectural gem on the 46-kilometer cycle route from Waterford to Dungarvan. RIGHT: Californian photographer John Nieto took this precise shot amidst the rooftops of San Francisco. The photo titled “Destination Moon Ring” was shortlisted in the Black and White category.
Shortlisted Landscape & Wildlife shortlisted winter shot of Niagara Falls by Andrea Lewis on the Journey Behind the Falls tour.
Julio Lucas took this shot of lush wildlife while walking through Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado. Entitled The Happy Place, Lucas said it was a place where he would “be back in the blink of an eye”.
A lone tree makes a strong impression in this gritty image by Vicki Murray titled The Road Home. This undoubtedly impressed the judges who chose the phone shot in the Black and White category.
This is one of the colorful images from winner Liu Kunkun’s portfolio. Speaking about his work, the photographer said: “I try to take apart the original order of the landscape and then rebuild and reorganize with a simple visual language to express new abstract images and explore the boundaries of photography.”