London Camera Exchange has announced the winners of its LCE Photographer of the Year 2026 (LCE POTY) competition. Nearly 14,500 entries were received — a 40% increase on 2025 — demonstrating the contest’s growing reputation as one of the UK’s leading competitions for photographers of all abilities and experience.
Now in its third year, the free-to-enter LCE POTY competition comprises 14 categories, including the publicly voted ‘People’s Choice’ and ‘Emerging Talent’ sections dedicated to photography students. The latter category offers a prize for both the photographer and their university or place of study, and celebrates the next generation of photographers.
A platform to highlight genuine photographic talent
An AI-Generated Imagery Verification and Authenticity Policy was introduced this year, ensuring that only authentic photographs were eligible for entry. The competition saw a marked increase in AI-generated submissions. While AI images are becoming progressively sophisticated and difficult to detect, LCE POTY was set up to provide exposure for photographers capturing images of real people, places, and events — rewarding them and giving them a stage to showcase their work.
First prize winner: Sophia Spurgin – ‘Fish Eyes’
The overall first prize winner is UK-based retired teacher Sophia Spurgin with her humorous portrait of a fisherman, captured spontaneously on a boat in Hoi An, Vietnam. Sophia commented, “I was keen to dedicate some time to serious travel photography during a family holiday and had been taking photos of this fisherman at work alongside a local photographer. This was the playful end of the photography session and a genuinely entertaining moment. I especially like that his fishing net is visible in the background, adding context and authenticity to the image”.
‘Fish Eyes’ was shot on a Canon EOS R5 Mark II. Sophia was awarded £3,000 in LCE vouchers
as the overall competition winner and Travel category winner. She also scooped £500 as winner of
the Wildlife category with her stunning image ‘Fighting Foxes in the Rain’.
Category winners (£500 vouchers each):
- Action – ‘Saving Lives at Sea’ by David Lyon
- After Dark – ‘Lonely is the Night’ by Hardijanto Budiman
- Birds – ‘A Gazing Owlet’ by Louise Norris
- Creative – ‘Swan Song’ by Brooke Shaden
- Emerging Talent (student award) – ‘Imprint’ by Millie Melvin
- Events – ‘Half a Second Before’ by Jacek Salaga
- Landscape – ‘The Lotus’ by Colin Page
- Macro – ‘Teamwork’ by Dikye Ariani
- Pets – ‘Silent Sentinel’ by Carole-Ann Chambers
- Portrait – ‘Red Rebel’ by John Lynch
- Street – ‘Crossing the Curves’ by Helen Trust
- Travel – ‘Fish Eyes’ by Sophia Spurgin (overall winner)
- Wildlife – ‘Fighting Foxes in the Rain’ by Sophia Spurgin
- People’s Choice – ‘Magical Uphill Lincoln’ by Andrew Scott
Notable winners:
The Emerging Talent Category was won by Millie Melvin, currently studying her MA in Photography at the Royal College of Art, with ‘Imprint’ — a powerful image inspired by an old family photograph and created using botanicals from her garden. Millie, who has aphantasia, uses her images to produce a visual archive, as she is unable to visualise objects in her mind.
Once again, water, wildlife, and birds were popular subjects for 2026, with some standout photographs representing the natural world across a full spectrum of themes — from orangutans and ants in action, to owls and ospreys in flight.
This enchanting portrait of a Little Owl chick by Louise Norris secured the top honour in the Birds category. ‘Teamwork’ by Dikye Ariani – a striking close-up depicting a group of red ants performing a curious acrobatic display – emerged victorious in the Macro category.
Following feedback from previous years, LCE switched the Music category to ‘Events’, and this saw entries double compared to 2025, making it one of the most popular themes. Entries to the Street genre doubled, and Portrait also saw a notable rise to become the 4th most entered category. Landscape remained at the top of the chart with almost 12% of all entries.
LCE POTY Awards presented at the Photography & Video Show
The LCE POTY Awards were presented in a special ceremony at The Photography & Video Show on Sunday 15 March 2026 at the NEC, Birmingham. A gallery, displaying the finalists’ images, was located close to the show’s entrance and many of the shortlisted images have been included in a special edition commemorative book. Winners received a share of the £10,000 prize fund and a unique trophy to take home. There are also plans to tour the images at other locations around the UK during 2026.
A selection of images from the award winners
Thanks to the sponsors
LCE POTY was even more successful in 2026 with more entries than previous years. The contest’s growing reputation could not have achieved this level of success without the generous support of leading manufacturers like Canon, Fujifilm and OM System, Lexar, Nikon and Sony, and Cewe and Sigma.
LCE would also like to thank the judging panel — SheClicks founder and journalist Angela Nicholson, Chris George, content director at Future Publishing, and professional portrait and travel documentary photographer Jimmy Cheng — for their expert opinions and help during the tricky process of selecting the winning images.
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