Celebrated Photographer Steve McCurry Picked the Winners of This Photo Contest
All About Photo (AAP) has announced the winners of the 2026 All About Photo Awards, marking the 11th anniversary edition of The Mind’s Eye competition. The annual program highlights international photographic work spanning documentary, conceptual, and fine art practices. This year’s selection was judged by acclaimed photographer Steve McCurry.
Global Scope and Jury
The awarded works represent photographers from 15 countries across four continents, reflecting a wide range of visual approaches and cultural perspectives. Submissions included documentary photography, conceptual projects, and observational work rooted in everyday life.
Steve McCurry’s selection emphasizes images that move between personal narrative and broader global themes, highlighting photography’s role as both documentation and interpretation.
About Steve McCurry
Steve McCurry has been one of the most widely recognized figures in contemporary photography for more than four decades. Born in Philadelphia, he studied film and fine art photography at Pennsylvania State University before beginning a freelance career that soon led him to extensive work across South Asia.
Early in his career, McCurry traveled through the region with minimal equipment, documenting daily life and cultural change. His work gained international attention after he was embedded with Afghan refugees during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, producing some of the earliest widely published images of the conflict.
Over the course of his career, McCurry has focused on conflicts, disappearing traditions, and contemporary life, with a consistent emphasis on human-centered storytelling. He has published more than 20 books, including Monsoon, Portraits, India, Afghanistan, and Devotion, and has presented numerous exhibitions worldwide.
His work has been recognized with major industry honors, including the Robert Capa Gold Medal, the Centenary Medal from the Royal Photographic Society, and his appointment as a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture. He is also an inductee of the International Photography Hall of Fame.
About the Awards
Founded in 2015, the All About Photo Awards, also known as The Mind’s Eye, is an annual international photography competition open to all genres and levels of experience. The program recognizes images that combine strong artistic vision with social, cultural, or environmental significance, positioning photography as both an expressive and documentary medium.
Each year, the competition receives submissions from photographers across the globe, representing a wide range of countries, cultures, and photographic traditions.
From the United States to Spain, from India to Indonesia, and from China to France, these images cross borders while remaining deeply rooted in specific places and lived experiences. Whether capturing the quiet weight of history in Window to the Past, the introspective complexity of identity in Obscura, or the cultural rhythms of daily life in West Africa and Cuba, each photograph contributes to a broader, interconnected narrative,” All about Photo says.
“Yet this diversity represents only part of the story. The competition attracted submissions from more than 500 photographers worldwide, spanning an even wider range of countries, cultures, and continents. The final selection is therefore both a distillation and a celebration — an edited constellation of voices that reflects the vast creative energy behind it.”
Inspired by the idea of photography as a balance between observation, emotion, and composition, the awards aim to highlight diverse perspectives on contemporary life through visual storytelling.
Top Winners
Title: Window to the Past
This image was made as part of a broader project exploring the life and legacy of Thomas Jefferson, photographed across historical sites connected to him, including Williamsburg, Virginia. The scene captures a misted window created by humid summer air, which McClain worked carefully over time to incorporate into the composition. The photograph reflects Jefferson’s enduring historical presence as the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, connecting atmosphere, place, and memory through a quiet, contemplative moment.
Title: Obscura
A conceptual self-portrait exploring how people construct, alter, and obscure their identities through public sharing. The work reflects on the tension between curated self-expression and the unintended consequences of revealing oneself in a digitally driven culture, questioning what is lost or transformed in the process of self-exposure.
Title: Celestial Ladies
Captured near the Benin/Togo border, the image shows women associated with the Celestial Church resting after a service. Their white attire and distinctive hats contrast with a grey wall marked by painted circles, creating a striking visual harmony. The moment highlights cultural identity, ritual, and everyday presence in a quiet, observational way.
Title: Train Sleeping in Carthage (Tunisia)
A spontaneous street photograph taken inside a train traveling from Carthage to Tunis, capturing a woman sleeping peacefully. The image focuses on an unposed, transient moment, emphasizing stillness within motion and the quiet humanity found in everyday travel.
Title: Bringing Home the Birds
In Havana’s Casablanca district, two boys are seen walking home carrying cages with small songbirds. The image reflects a long-standing Cuban tradition of keeping birds for their song, a practice rooted in cultural history and domestic life. The scene captures both innocence and tradition within an everyday urban moment.
Notably, three women photographers were placed among the top five selections.
Themes and Visual Storytelling
The remaining winning images span a broad thematic range, including social documentation, environmental concerns, cultural tradition, and personal reflection. Some works address urgent global issues such as labor conditions and climate impact, while others focus on quieter, observational moments drawn from everyday life.
Across the selection, the competition highlights photography’s continued ability to merge documentary practice with artistic interpretation, allowing multiple forms of storytelling to coexist.
Exhibition and Recognition
The All About Photo Awards provide a total of $5,000 in cash prizes, along with significant international exposure for selected photographers. Winning and finalist images are featured in AAP Magazine, included in curated online exhibitions, and distributed across partner media platforms that reach a global audience of editors, curators, and photography professionals.
Organizers describe the awards as a platform supporting visual storytelling across all levels of experience. The focus is not limited to technical perfection, but instead prioritizes originality, narrative strength, and cultural or emotional relevance. This approach encourages photographers to submit work that reflects meaningful engagement with contemporary life rather than purely aesthetic concerns.
Over time, the awards have evolved into both a competitive showcase and an annual curated archive of global photography. Each edition brings together a wide range of voices and perspectives, offering a snapshot of how photographers around the world interpret and document the present moment.
Image credits: Individual artists as credited, Courtesy All About Photo
