“Drifting in Space” by Gilad Topaz

Based in Siena, Italy, Luca Venturi is considered one of the world’s foremost photographers. His passion for exploring the world and capturing what he sees through the lens of a camera has garnered him countless international awards. Wanting to further share his passion and establish Siena as the capital of international photography, Luca founded the Siena Awards in 2015. Within one year, the Siena International Photography Awards and the subsequent Siena Awards Festival were regarded as one of the most prestigious photography contests worldwide. Over the years, Luca’s vision of highlighting the best in international photography in Siena has grown and expanded.

In 2018, Luca introduced a new element to the Siena Awards by inviting drone photographers to share their captivating images. As Emanuela Ascoli, the head of photography for National Geographic in France and one of the judges of the Siena Awards, explains, “A compelling picture should inspire in you some empathy, emotion, wonder, or even worry sometimes. It could really have to tell you a story. So, stop a moment, catch the perfect moment, and well, catch also your attention to some stories that really need to be told.” Innovations in drone technology have allowed drones to revolutionize the photography industry and how people view the world. “It’s just a new way of seeing things,” Emanuela goes on to say about drone photography. “A new perspective, really different from the things we are used to see before. So it changed by the human point of view in a more kind of bird point of view. So it’s stunning, striking, just amazing.”

For the 2024 competition, Luca and his board at the Siena Awards received more than 2,000 drone images from photographers representing 113 different countries. Photographers can submit as many images as they like; the first entry is free, with a fee of €20 for three images and €10 for each additional image. The competition is open to both professional and amateur photographers, and previously published drone images are welcome. The competition features nine categories for drone images: people, nature, urban, abstract, sport, animals, wedding, series, and video. Winners, runners-up, and highly commended drone photographs are announced within each category, as well as an overall Drone Photographer of the Year Award. Prizes include a trip to the festival, a feature in the two-month-long “Above Us Only Sky” drone photography exhibit, and the coveted Pangea Prize crystal statuette.

This year’s winners were announced during the Siena World Photography Awards ceremony at the Teatro dei Rinnovati in Siena on September 28. Some of the selected drone images included an endangered sperm whale with a tiger shark floating above it, newlyweds sharing a kiss in a vintage Volkswagen Beetle, the textured landscape of Utah’s Factory Butte, and Russia’s Lakhta Center skyscraper emerging from dense fog. But, it was Gilad Topaz’s image that took home the grand prize of Drone Photographer of the Year.

Gilad, an amateur drone photographer from Israel, taught himself to take drone images through YouTube tutorials. Most of his drone images feature Israel’s captivating desert landscapes. However, his winning image is a stark contrast to the deserts he calls home. While traveling to Sweden, Gilad had the opportunity to launch his drone above the Baltic Sea while he and a group of travelers were aboard an icebreaker. Donning special rubber suits, the travelers floated in a pool carved out of the ice. Gilad’s bird’s-eye view drone image, titled “Drifting in Space,” makes the swimmers look almost like astronauts floating in space.

Gilad’s image, along with all the other winners and submissions, shows a perspective of the world that we would otherwise never be able to see. Through the high resolution of a drone’s camera, we are presented with images that, as Emanuela explained, evoke emotions that compel us to question what we see. What is happening, why is it happening, and how can we learn more about what we are seeing? As the American photojournalist Dorothea Lange once said, “The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” Drones are the latest tools that allow people to see the world in new and thrilling ways. Thanks to Luca’s visionary Siena Awards, more people than ever will now have the chance to experience the possibilities of seeing the world from a bird’s-eye point of view.

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