/ 2025 / Nature / Aerial

• Prize
  Honorable Mention
• Photographer
  Steven Manolakis, Australia
• Studio
  Steven Stanley Manolakis
• Website
  https://stevenstanleymanolakis.com/
• Instagram
  stevenstanleymanolakis

In this series, Manolakis captures the striking contrasts of Shark Bay, Western Australia, where a luminous blue lagoon meets the fiery embrace of red sands. Through sweeping aerial perspectives, the images reveal nature’s vivid palette—cerulean waters curling against ochre earth, creating abstract patterns both serene and raw. The interplay of colour and form evokes a land shaped by tides and time, where beauty emerges from the meeting of opposites.

Steven Stanley Manolakis is a photographer based in Sydney. His images of Australian landscapes photographed from above provide a unique view of what lies surrounding us.

Since he began shooting in 2018, Steven has earned more than 50 international photography awards and has been published in numerous magazines, including All About Photo, Australian Photography, and The Eye of Photography.

Awards 2022 Moscow International Foto Awards
-Germinate, Bronze, Fine Art – Landscape
-Physis, Bronze, Nature – Aerial
-10 Honourable Mentions, Fine Art – Landscape

Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers 2022
-Top 20
-11 Highly Commended
-Commended

8th Annual Fine Art Photography Awards (FAPA)
-Nominee, Seascape
-Nominee, Nature

2021/2022 The Chelsea International Photography Competition
-Untethered, Cash Prize Winner

2022 The Motif Collective February Landscape Theme
-Blue Dragon, Shortlisted
-Hope-Despair, Shortlisted

2022 Muse Photography Awards
-The Kimberley, Platinum, Fine Art Photography – Nature
-Neuron, Platinum, Fine Art Photography – Landscape
-The Kimberley, Gold, Fine Art Photography – Landscape
-Lament, Gold, Fine Art Photography – Landscape
-Varnish, Silver, Fine Art Photography – Landscape

2021 London International Creative Competition
-Finalist

2021 Australian Photography POTY
-Top 10, Aerial

2021 The Motif Collective December Minimalism Theme
-Still, Shortlisted

2021 Chromatic Photography Awards
-Blue Dragon, Honourable Mention, Landscape
-Archetypal, Honourable Mention, Landscape
-Transfusion, Honourable Mention, Landscape
-Gilded River, Honourable Mention, Landscape
-Physis, Honourable Mention, Landscape

2021 Creative Communication Award
-Best of Best, Landscape
-Best of Best, Nature

2021 ND Awards
-Honourable Mention, Nature-Aerial

2021 International Photography Awards
-3 Honourable Mentions, Fine Art-Landscape
-Honourable Mention, Fine Art-Abstract
-Honourable Mention, Nature-Landscape

2021 Moscow International Foto Awards
-Silver, Nature
-Bronze, Fine Art
-Honourable Mention, Nature-Aerial
-Honourable Mention, Fine Art-Abstract

2020 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year
-Finalist, Landscape

2020 Creative Communication Award
-Best of Best, Landscape
-Best of Best, Nature

2020 International Photography Awards
-Honourable Mention, Nature-Aerial / Drone
-Honourable Mention