The winners of the Ocean Art 2021 photo competition are announced

Underwater Photography Guide magazine has announced the names of this year’s winners of the prestigious Ocean Art 2021 underwater photography competition.

Underwater Photography Guide magazine has been organising the Ocean Art competition since 2010. During this time the organisers have not only made a great name for themselves, but have also helped to promote many photographers and their wonderful work. They have helped to promote the need to protect the underwater world.

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While we continue to recognise the challenges and travel restrictions resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, the 10th annual competition was a testament to high quality craftsmanship from our global community of underwater artists. This year’s Ocean Art competition celebrates a decade of searching for the world’s best photographs of marine life, unique portraits of intriguing underwater creatures, and images that instill an urgency to protect the part of our planet that is hidden beneath the oceans’ surface – said Scott Gietler, publisher of Underwater Photography Guide.

The top prize – Best of Show – was won by Belgian diver Luc Rooman. The photographer captured the moment when a pair of pikes is entangled in a fierce duel. The author captured this unusual image of the fight between two predators in Domein Muisbroek, near Antwerp. The photograph is also unique in that never before has a photograph taken in a freshwater area won the Ocean Art competition ‘s top prize.

Behind the scenes of the competition

In total, 81 countries submitted several thousand underwater photographs for the Ocean Art 2021 competition! This number of photographs and the high level of the submitted works caused quite a headache for the jury. Fortunately, the judges included the renowned underwater photographers Tony Wu, Mark Strickland and Marty Snyderman, who coped brilliantly with this difficult task.

We were thrilled to see photographers who continue to travel locally and internationally to capture amazing images. Although interestingly, in the case of the Best of Show award winner, he didn’t have to travel far at all. He nevertheless captured a suspenseful scene. I think the photographer must have had a personal connection with these two fish! – concluded Scott Gietler.

The winners of the competition were awarded prizes totalling US$35,000. This amount made the Ocean Art 2021 competition the most generously rewarding competition among underwater photographers in the world.

Photos of the winners and other prizewinners can be admired on competition website.

Photo Luc Rooman/Ocean Art Best of Show 2021