In Pioche, Nevada, a movie theater built in 1937 stands in tribute to the immense changes in technology and style over nearly a century. A bold portrait set against a black background by photographer Kevin Boyle captures not only the aging building but a mid-20th-century pastime that taps into nostalgia and small town identity. (Amid preservation efforts, the theater is currently being rehabilitated.) It’s just one of the works in the artist’s ongoing Movieland series, which won the Architecture category in this year’s Hasselblad Masters 2026 contest.
Additional categories in the prestigious competition include Wildlife, Landscape, Art, Portrait, Street, and Project//21, which highlights work by entrants aged 21 or younger. This year, photographers in 160 countries submitted more than 108,000 images, which were narrowed down to 70 finalists.
In addition to their technical aptitude, the artists illuminate lesser-known pockets of the world by examining distinctive social issues, nature, and geographies. The winning photos are atmospheric and even surreal, such as Rohan Reilly’s low-exposure Ephemeral Visions series of rows of trees and Gosse Bouma’s misty depictions of Netherlandish market stalls in Morning Ritual.
Svetlana Jovanovic turns her lens to bold dual portraits of identical twins, and Alfred Minnaar’s otherworldly captures of underwater vitality topped the Wildlife category. Panitbhand Paribatra Na Ayudhya, winner of the Project//21 category, is a 14-year-old scuba diver from Thailand who explores the beauty, fragility, and biodiversity of the ocean in beautiful portrayals of marine life.
Hasselblad Foundation executive director Kalle Sanner says, “Across categories, the strongest work operated on more than one level simultaneously: legible on first encounter, yet resistant to easy interpretation. These are images that require attention, that continue to unfold the longer you stay with them.” For example, Yudha Kusuma Putera’s uncanny photographs of huddled cows’ backs nod to the unseen. What we don’t see is as significant as what we do, as these animals are actually 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 approach to “out of sight, out of mind.”
See all the winning images on the Hasselblad Masters website.
