Winners Gallery
Finalist Conservation (Impact) Photographer of the Year
Scott Portelli Barents Sea, Arctic
A melting ice shelf in the Arctic creates waterfalls. “The shelf extends for hundreds of kilometres along the high Arctic landscape. The jagged edges show the sheer magnitude of ice protruding into the ocean,” says Portelli. “As temperatures increase, the rate of glacial melt increases, causing dramatic raging waterfalls to drain into the ocean. The impacts will be felt almost immediately for life in the Arctic.”
BEHIND THE LENS
Scott Portelli Australia
ABOUT THE IMAGE
- Calm and sunny
- Site accessed by boat
- Taken with a drone
Scott Portelli is an award-winning wildlife, nature, aerial, and underwater photographer and filmmaker based in Esperance, Western Australia. With thousands of hours spent in remote regions, his work focuses on conservation, education, and capturing wildlife with a low-impact, non-invasive approach. Scott has won Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year (2021, 2024) and earned recognition from Wildlife Photographer of the Year (2016, 2022). He has spent over a decade documenting Antarctica and the Sub-Antarctic, producing a fine art portfolio that reveals rare glimpses above and below the surface in some of Earth’s harshest environments.
MORE IMAGES BY Scott Portelli
WildlifePhotographer of the Year
2023 Falkland Islands
Reconnect. Immerse yourself. Be inspired.
Enjoy the vibrancy, beauty and impact of each year's finalist photography, celebrated in our Ocean Photographer of the Year coffee table book collection.
