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Can you spot the poacher’s handprint? Earth Photo award winners – in pictures
The Guardian gallery showcases the winning and shortlisted images from the Earth Photo 2026 awards, highlighting environmental change, conservation and Indigenous knowledge through documentary photography. The collection matters because it links visually striking images to urgent global issues including wildlife crime, climate damage, pollution, food security and land rights, while also publicising the London exhibition where the works are being shown.
– The overall Earth Photo 2026 award went to Britta Jaschinski for work on the illegal wildlife trade, including images showing forensic methods used to detect fingerprints on trafficked animal products such as an elephant tusk and a green sea turtle; the article notes the poaching industry is worth about $23bn (£17bn). – Filbert Minja won the David Wolf Kaye Future Potential award for documenting Indigenous herbalists in Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro and Arusha regions, presenting herbal medicine as a practical, inherited form of knowledge tied to land and daily life. – Natalya Saprunova received the New Scientist Editors award for a long-term project on permafrost thaw and coastal erosion in Canada’s Inuvialuit territories, including images linked to disrupted bird migration, stranded ringed seals and mercury contamination affecting marine ecosystems and people who depend on them. – Payal Kakkar won the Royal Geographical Society Climate of Change award for a series on the Khairwar Indigenous community’s resistance to coal mining and land loss in Singrauli, India, using mining waste within the printing process to reflect industrial contamination. – The shortlisted and award-winning works are on display at the Royal Geographical Society in London until 24 July, with the Summit Photo interactive event running from 17 to 19 July.
In short
- Earth Photo winners focus on climate, wildlife crime and Indigenous communities
- Top prize highlights forensic efforts against illegal poaching
- Award-winning images are on show in London until 24 July
Explained simply
Earth Photo is an annual photography award focused on the environment and the relationship between people and the natural world. Its winning and shortlisted work covers subjects such as wildlife crime, climate change, pollution and the ways communities use and protect their land.
The photographers include Britta Jaschinski, whose work examines the illegal trade in wildlife, and Filbert Minja, who documents herbalists in Tanzania. Other projects show how thawing permafrost affects people and ecosystems in Canada, and how the Khairwar Indigenous community faces coal mining and land loss in India.
These stories matter because environmental change can affect wildlife, livelihoods, health and cultural knowledge. The photographs connect those wider issues to particular places and communities, and are being shown in a London exhibition.