The Winning Photos of Underwater Photographer of the Year 2018

The Underwater Photographer of the Year photo competition has just unveiled its winners for 2018. The photos provide gorgeous glimpses into the aquatic world that’s normally out of sight.

This year’s overall winner was German photographer Tobias Friedrich with an image titled “Cycle War” (shown above). It shows Norton 16H motorcycles loaded into the backs of submerged Fordson WOT 3 trucks. You can see a school of soldierfish above the wreck.

“I had had this image in mind for a few years, but it is impossible to capture in one photo, because there is not space inside the wreck to photograph this scene in a single frame,” says Friedrich. “My solution was take a series pictures and stitch them together as a panorama.”

Here are the other top photographs honored in this year’s contest:

British Underwater Photographer of the Year

Up & Coming Underwater Photographer of the Year

Here are the first place winners from all of the categories in this year’s contest:

Most Promising British Underwater Photographer

Wide-angle

Macro

Behaviour

Portrait

Black & White

Compact

British Waters Macro

British Waters Compact

To see more of the awarded entries, head to the Underwater Photographer of the Year website. You can also see the previous winners for the contest in 2017 and 2016.