Glorious landscape named People’s Choice winner of 2025, South Australian Museum, January 2026

Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year

The striking picture, titled Glacial Blue, was taken by New South Wales photographer Stuart Chape at Lake Pukaki in the mountains of Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park.

Glacial Blue was shortlisted in the 2025 competition and has been on exhibition at the South Australian Museum with the 98 other finalists since August last year.

The exhibition closes soon, on Sunday 1 February.

Stuart snapped the picture from the open door of a light airplane with a Fujifilm GFX 100 ll camera sporting a GF 32-64mm lens.

The incredible blue colours are due to fine silt particles, or glacial flour, in the water from glacial erosion.

Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year, which is in its 23rd year, is owned and operated by the South Australian Museum and attracted 1,864 images from 449 photographers in 18 countries in 2025.

Western Australian photographer Ross Gudgeon was named the overall winner with his image Fractal Forest; a unique look inside a cauliflower coral shot in Indonesia.

The exhibition is also on display at the Australian Museum in Sydney until 15 February.

At the South Australian Museum, the exhibition has attracted almost 20,000 visitors, many of whom nominated Glacial Blue as their favourite image.

The South Australian Museum last month issued a call for entries for the 2026 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year. Entries close on 5 February.

Entries are accepted covering content from across the ANZANG bioregion – Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica and New Guinea.

Photographers are invited to submit entries through 10 categories: Animals in Nature, Botanical, Animal Behaviour, Macro, Landscape, Threatened Species, Monochrome, Our Impact, Portfolio and Junior.

That includes the return of the Botanical and Animal Behaviour categories following feedback during a review of the competition.

The overall winner receives $10,000; category winners receive $1,500; while the Junior

and People’s Choice winners take home $500.

The entry form and other information on the exhibition can be found here.

Comments attributable to South Australian Museum Director Dr Samantha Hamilton

Stuart’s landscape was the overwhelming winner of the People’s Choice Award and just goes to show how different images in the exhibition resonate with different people.

The photograph is beautiful and the amazing colours obviously created a deep connection for those who saw it.

That of course is one of our ambitions for the competition; to connect people with nature. Congratulations to Stuart – and all the other entrants – for a job well done.

Entries are open for the 2026 competition and I can’t wait to see the finalists when

announced later this year.

Comments attributable to Arts Minister Andrea Michaels

The Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year exhibition is attracting record numbers of visitors to the South Australian Museum and stunning images like Stuart’s are the reason why.

His striking image of the mountains in Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park truly captures the wonder of the natural world and I congratulate him on winning this year’s People’s Choice Award.

Comments attributable to People’s Choice winner Stuart Chape

I took the photo while I was on holidays in New Zealand and had already planned the shot before I got there. I’m interested in patterns formed by the landscape and chartered a plane for it.

It snowed just two days before the flight – something that was a bit unexpected in October, but it added another dimension to the photo. It all added to what I wanted to do.

It’s really pleasing to win – it’s my first People’s Choice award.

But the photo has won four major awards over the past 18 months in major competitions around the world, so I suppose I wasn’t entirely surprised people liked it.

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For more information or to organise an interview, please contact: The South Australian Museum media line I 0466 389 019 | [email protected]

Competition details: https://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/c/npoty/competition