In Pioche, Nevada, a movie show inbuilt 1937 stands in tribute to the immense modifications in know-how and elegance over almost a century. A daring portrait set in opposition to a black background by photographer Kevin Boyle captures not solely the getting old constructing however a mid-Twentieth-century pastime that faucets into nostalgia and small city identification. (Amid preservation efforts, the theater is at present being rehabilitated.) It’s simply one of many works within the artist’s ongoing Movieland collection, which gained the Structure class on this 12 months’s Hasselblad Masters 2026 contest.
Further classes within the prestigious competitors embody Wildlife, Panorama, Artwork, Portrait, Road, and Venture//21, which highlights work by entrants aged 21 or youthful. This 12 months, photographers in 160 international locations submitted greater than 108,000 pictures, which had been narrowed right down to 70 finalists.
Along with their technical aptitude, the artists illuminate lesser-known pockets of the world by inspecting distinctive social points, nature, and geographies. The successful pictures are atmospheric and even surreal, reminiscent of Rohan Reilly’s low-exposure Ephemeral Visions collection of rows of bushes and Gosse Bouma’s misty depictions of Netherlandish market stalls in Morning Ritual.
Svetlana Jovanovic turns her lens to daring twin portraits of similar twins, and Alfred Minnaar’s otherworldly captures of underwater vitality topped the Wildlife class. Panitbhand Paribatra Na Ayudhya, winner of the Venture//21 class, is a 14-year-old scuba diver from Thailand who explores the wonder, fragility, and biodiversity of the ocean in stunning portrayals of marine life.
Hasselblad Basis govt director Kalle Sanner says, “Throughout classes, the strongest work operated on multiple degree concurrently: legible on first encounter, but immune to straightforward interpretation. These are pictures that require consideration, that proceed to unfold the longer you stick with them.” For instance, Yudha Kusuma Putera’s uncanny pictures of huddled cows’ backs nod to the unseen. What we don’t see is as vital as what we do, as these animals are literally grazing on heaps of trash in a dump on the outskirts of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Exploring notions of labor and visibility, Putera takes a visually literal strategy to “out of sight, out of thoughts.”
See all of the successful pictures on the Hasselblad Masters web site.
