The reFocus Awards has announced the winners of its prestigious annual Color Photography Contest, with a breathtaking image of glacier climbers silhouetted against a fiery solar eclipse claiming the top prize. The winning photograph, titled "Ring of Fire, and Ice," was captured by UK-based photographer Liam Man, who has established himself as a prominent figure in the photography awards circuit.
Man's extraordinary image earned him the Overall Winner title in the competition, impressing both judges and viewers with its rare combination of technical excellence, environmental significance, and emotional impact. The photograph represents far more than just a visually striking image – it captures a fleeting moment that powerfully illustrates both the fragility and magnificence of our natural world.
**A Once-in-a-Lifetime Shot Nearly Lost**
The award-winning photograph was taken at the summit of Glacier Leones, recognized as one of the world's fastest-retreating glaciers. The image was captured during the climax of an exhausting week-long expedition, showing two climbers standing in silhouette beneath the dramatic Ring of Fire eclipse as snow swirls around them in the harsh mountain conditions.
Remarkably, the illumination in the photograph doesn't come from the sun itself. Man employed an innovative drone-mounted lighting system to illuminate the ice formations from above, revealing intricate textures and vivid colors that would have been completely lost in the eclipse's shadow.
In a detailed interview with reFocus Awards, Man revealed the high stakes and complex preparation behind capturing this singular moment. "Every single expense of this expedition came entirely out of my own pocket, and absolutely everything depended on one perfect moment," Man explained. "We spent months scouting locations, selecting this specific site based on the eclipse's projected path, and battling absolutely terrible weather conditions throughout the journey. But when the day of the eclipse finally arrived, the skies miraculously cleared. It was an incredible moment of perfect alignment."
The photograph represents a unique convergence of celestial mechanics and environmental storytelling, positioning "Ring of Fire, and Ice" as a work that exists at the fascinating intersection of scientific documentation, adventure photography, and fine art.
**The Icebreaker Project: Photography as Environmental Advocacy**
This remarkable image serves as a central piece in Man's ambitious Icebreaker Project, an ongoing photographic series dedicated to documenting glacial regions across the globe. The project was created specifically to support the United Nations International Year of Glaciers Preservation 2025, with the primary goal of highlighting rapidly disappearing ice formations and encouraging serious reflection on climate change impacts.
"Glaciers represent much more than beautiful landscapes – they function as living data repositories," Man emphasized. "They record time, temperature changes, and serve as repositories of environmental memory spanning thousands of years. For me, photographing these formations isn't simply about capturing a scenic landscape. It's about actively participating in a crucial conversation about the health and future of our planet."
Environmental advocacy remains central to all of Man's photographic work. By combining sophisticated long-exposure techniques with innovative drone lighting systems, he creates what he describes as "environmental portraits" that simultaneously document and elevate natural formations to artistic status.
**Revolutionary Technique Born from Necessity**
Man has gained international recognition for his pioneering aerial light painting technique. By attaching custom-designed lighting rigs to drones and flying them over landscapes during long-exposure photography sessions, he effectively sculpts light around geological formations. This innovative approach allows him to emphasize textures, contours, and details that remain completely invisible under natural lighting conditions.
The technique emerged from a practical challenge Man encountered early in his career. While photographing night skies in remote locations, he discovered that the landscapes he had traveled great distances to reach were often too dark to feature meaningfully in his compositions. Mounting professional lighting equipment to drones offered him complete freedom of movement and precise control over illumination.
"It completely transformed my entire approach to photography," he explained. "Rather than waiting endlessly for perfect natural light conditions, I could actively create exactly the lighting I needed. That fundamental shift changed my entire relationship with landscape photography."
**The Importance of Color in Fine Art Photography**
While many fine art landscape photographers prefer black-and-white imagery for its timeless aesthetic, Man remains deeply committed to color photography. He views color not merely as a descriptive tool, but as a powerful expressive medium capable of conveying complex information and emotions.
"We experience our world in full color, and that's how we should document it," Man stated. "Ice alone can display an incredible range of colors – from deep, intense glacial blues to rusty reds caused by sediment deposits. These color variations tell detailed stories about each glacier's origin, age, and current condition. Converting to monochrome risks flattening and losing these crucial details."
His unwavering commitment to color photography also serves to distinguish his work from traditional landscape photography, placing it more firmly within the realm of constructed visual storytelling and contemporary art.
**2025 reFocus Awards Professional Category Winners**
In addition to Man's overall winning photograph, the reFocus Awards 2025 honored outstanding submissions across more than twenty distinct genres in color photography. This year's first-place winners showcase an impressive range of artistic styles, cultural perspectives, and subject matter from photographers around the globe. Collectively, these images form a compelling snapshot of contemporary photography's remarkable ability to document reality, spark imagination, and provoke meaningful dialogue through the power of color.
The complete list of category winners includes:
**Abstract Category Winner:** "Liquid Soul n7712 Extinctions" by Gaëtan Changeur
**Aerial Category Winner:** "Where Water Once Was" by Octavio Campos Salles
**Architecture Category Winner:** "Tempelhof" by Jonathan Ducrest
**Conceptual Category Winner:** "Iranian girl" by Kristina Makeeva
**Fashion & Beauty Category Winner:** "Luceatanima" by Daniil Slomakin
**Film/Analog Category Winner:** "Blue Swallow" by William Mark Sommer
**Fine Art Category Winner:** "The Lake" by Masoud Mirzaei
**Landscapes Category Winner:** "A quiet moment" by Manuela Palmberger
**Minimalism Category Winner:** "Nowhere" by Alessandro Tagliapietra
**Nature Category Winner:** "Earth's Galaxy" by Navaneeth Unnikrishnan
**People Category Winner:** "Chile pepper workers" by Serkan Dogus
**Photojournalism Category Winner:** "NOWHERE IS SAFE FOR THEM" by Veronique De Viguerie
**Portrait Category Winner:** "Crestline Queen" by Elijah Barnes
**Portrait Category Winner:** "Pink Niqab, 2020 De Tweede Sekse" by Jaimy Gail
**Still Life Category Winner:** "Rose Couture" by Patti Gary
**Street Category Winner:** "Two time" by Nikolay Schegolev
**Travel Category Winner:** "This Icecap is to Go" by Jacquie Matechuk
**Underwater Category Winner:** "Underneath the surface" by Kirvan Baldassari
**Wildlife Category Winner:** "Incoming" by Maddison Woollard
**Domestic Animals Category Winner:** "In the Light" by Daniela Schnabel-Sahm
Photography enthusiasts and art lovers can view the complete gallery of winning and shortlisted works by visiting the official reFocus Awards website, where high-resolution images and detailed artist statements provide deeper insight into each photographer's creative process and artistic vision.
