The award ceremony for the winners of the RGS's contest "The Most Beautiful Country". Photo: RGS press service
The award ceremony for the winners of the XI International Photo Contest «The Most Beautiful Country», which is organized by the Russian Geographical Society, was held in Moscow on September 11. The names of 11 winners in the main categories, five winners of special prizes, including the People’s Choice Award, and four winners of the photo contest «The Most Beautiful Country through the Eyes of Children» were announced.
The large-scale media project «The Most Beautiful Country» is dedicated to preserving Russia’s wildlife and fostering respect for the environment. The photo contest has been held since 2015. In just 11 years, the jury has received more than 780,000 works from 118,000 participants.
Every year, professional and amateur photographers, foreigners and children can take part in the contest. The main rule is that the contest entries must be created in Russia. To show all the beauty and versatility of our country, participants travel to remote and hard-to-reach places, observe animals, look at seemingly familiar natural phenomena from an unusual angle and show creativity. Thanks to the photo contest, we rediscover Russia every year.
The best photos become a real discovery for experts, jury members, and viewers. The evaluation of the submitted works is carried out by world-renowned wildlife photographers, workers of culture, as well as professionals in their field, who prove by their example that we have got the most beautiful country.
The winners of the 11th photo contest were chosen by wildlife photographers Sergei Gorshkov, Marco Urso, Andrew Parkinson, Sergei Semenov, and Igor Metelsky, who received the People’s Choice Award of the tenth photo contest; as well as photographer, author of documentary and scientific educational projects Olga Michi; actor and director Sergei Garmash; actor and director Vladimir Mashkov; cosmonaut Ivan Vagner; TASS Visual Content Director Ilya Lazarev; Chairman of the Union of Wildlife Photographers Aleksandr Myaskov; CEO of «Astra Group» PAO Ilya Sivtsev; Director of Strategic Partnership at VK Dmitry Uvarov; and Sergei Shoigu, President of the Russian Geographical Society.
«Every year, photos surprise with their beauty, composition, and complexity of shooting. It’s hard to imagine how much effort the authors put into achieving such a result! The photos from the 'Wild Animals’ category are the most memorable. They leave no one indifferent, neither adults nor children. The works from the categories 'Landscape’ and 'Elemental Magic’ are beautiful, fascinating and, as a rule, are the result of very difficult shooting. I wish the contest participants to continue to create unique works. Show everyone what a beautiful country we have, with so many interesting places!» noted a member of the jury of the photo contest, cosmonaut Ivan Vagner.
Experts and the jury noted an increase in the quality of the contestants' photographs. The participants pay great attention to the angle, carefully approach the choice of shooting location, increasingly preferring to surprise the audience with novelty and remoteness. Of course, special attention is paid to the concept and the semantic load that the authors put into the works. For example, the photo contest in the «Wild Animals» category receives a large number of photos of representatives of rare species, for which the Russian Geographical Society acts as a patron. Among them are the Amur tiger, snow leopard, Przhevalsky’s horse, polar bear, etc. Conservation activities and constant work to increase the population of rare animals are reflected in the photographs of photographers who go to nature reserves, set up camera traps, and use high-tech equipment not to disturb the animals, but to create their unique and colorful portraits.
In 2025, the Russian Geographical Society celebrates its 180th anniversary. And for its anniversary, the RGS established a new category for the photo contest «The Most Beautiful Country»: «180 Wonders». Photographs of natural and man-made objects that are a treasure of Russia and, according to the author, a must-visit were considered in this category. The category became very popular among the participants.
In total, the XI Photo Contest «The Most Beautiful Country» received about 50,000 works from 8,000 participants.
The winners were announced on September 11, at a ceremony at the New Tretyakov Gallery. Now there is an exhibition of the best works of the participants of previous years. This year’s winners are:
— Aleksandr Lavrentiev from the city of Pushkino, Moscow Region, who took a photo of the foggy shore of the remote island of Simushir (category «Landscape»);
— Vyacheslav Zametnya from St. Petersburg took a unique picture of a snow leopard on the Chikhachev Ridge, the northernmost part of the habitat of this rare animal («Wild Animals»);
— Daniil Silantyev from Chelyabinsk with a photo of the mysterious Ladoga forest («The Most Beautiful Desktop Wallpaper»);
— Aleksandr Pashenichev from the village of Vyritsa, Leningrad Region, photographed the fog over a spruce forest from a bird’s-eye view («Elemental Magic»);
— Natalya Privalenko from Moscow with a photo of a Eurasian pygmy owl on a hunt («Birds»);
— Igor Zhabsky from the village of Pokrovka in Primorye Territory saw a sad seal in an ice floe («Art of Wildlife (fine-art photography)»);
— Olga Papina from Volgograd won with the picture «Grandma Nadia and Her Cats» («Faces of Russia»);
— Yuri Podgrushny from Bataysk, Rostov Region, photographed a jumping spider on a rose petal («Macroworld»);
— Maria Tyurukhanova from St. Petersburg with the work «Island of White Dogs» («Taken on a Smartphone»);
— Vladimir Palchik from St. Petersburg compared in his work the past and present appearance of the Novotorzhsky Boris and Gleb Monastery («Live Archive»);
— Ruslan Kondratenko from St. Petersburg captured the miracle of the rising full moon over St. Petersburg («180 Wonders») in his photo.
Each winner was awarded a diploma and a prize of 250,000 rubles. Anatoly Shishkin from the Moscow Region received a special prize «Reserved Russia» from VTB Bank. A special prize «Captured on a Camera Trap» from the «Amur Tiger» center and «PhosAgro» company was won by Yuri Smityuk from Vladivostok. Pavel Ivshin from St. Petersburg received a special prize «Natural Art Object» from the Art, Science and Sport Charity Foundation. Galina Gorshenina from Moscow won in the new special category «Amazing Places», which was established this year by the RGS together with VK. Finally, the People’s Choice Award from the RGS was awarded to Vyacheslav Zametnya from St. Petersburg, who also won in the «Wild Animals» category.
The winners of the photo contest «The Most Beautiful Country through the Eyes of Children», which has been held since 2018, were also announced. They were Sergei Telnyuk from Voronezh («Landscape»); Ivan Gorshkov from Obninsk, Kaluga Region («Animal World»); Denis Pronin from Orel («Macroworld»); Anastasia Asadullina from the Amur Region («Natural Phenomena»). Each winner received a diploma and a prize of 100,000 rubles.
Shortly before the award ceremony for the winners of the 11th photo contest, a new hall of the photo exhibition festival «The Most Beautiful Country» was opened in the west wing of the New Tretyakov Gallery. The exhibition features the works of this year’s finalists. The winners of the 11th photo contest were announced surrounded by photos of Russia’s wildlife. Against the backdrop of photographs by talented photographers and nature itself, the laureates received their valuable prizes from the RGS and the partners of the contest and thanked the organizers, relatives, and other photographers. Anyone who wants to get acquainted with the best works in the history of «The Most Beautiful Country» contest can visit the exhibition of the same name until October 5.
The submissions for the XII Photo Contest of the RGS «The Most Beautiful Country» are scheduled to open in December 2025.