The winners of the WallMag Travel Photography Awards 2026 are here — chosen from a Top 100 shortlist of travel photographers working across India and beyond. Shoot Travel · Submit · Win.
📅 Finalists announced: 25 September 2026
Winners announced: 2 October 2026
How Were the Winners Decided?
Nothing here was decided behind a closed door. Every entry was first scored by the WallMag community — open voting, visible on each project page. The hundred highest-scoring entries became the finalists. Only then did our independent jury of working photographers step in and score that shortlist. The final standing weighs jury 80% and community 20%, which is why a frame that moved the crowd still had to hold up to a professional eye.
Meet the Top 3.
🥇 1st Place — Hedam : Devine Power
By: Shivaji Dhute
A Dhangar community palanquin procession in Kolhapur, photographed from inside the turmeric haze rather than safely outside it. The colour is the first thing you see and the last thing that matters — what carries the frame is the devotion moving through it.
🏆 Prize: ₹5,000 worth of Partner Brand Discounts & Coupons; plus Cover Story Feature in WallMag Creator Magazine — a full editorial spread of your winning travel stories, plus the shared winner benefits below.
🥈 2nd Place — Two Worlds in Blue
By: Sanjay Joshi
Jodhpur blue, a doorway used as a frame within the frame, and one orange cat that decides where your eye lands before the human moment beyond the door ever registers. The facing staircases do the quiet structural work.
🏆 Prize: ₹5,000 worth of Partner Brand Discounts & Coupons; plus Featured Interview in WallMag Creator Magazine — your craft, journey, and signature travel style, plus the shared winner benefits below.
🥉 3rd Place — Life Of FIsher Village
By: Arnab Biswas
Eight frames from Canning, where a fishing community lives, survives and thrives alongside the water. No single hero shot — the series earns its place by paying ordinary life close, patient attention.
🏆 Prize: ₹5,000 worth of Partner Brand Discounts & Coupons; plus Spotlight Q&A in WallMag Creator Magazine on your winning travel photography portfolio, plus the shared winner benefits below.
What Every Winner Receives
The Top 3 share the same core benefits, with the magazine treatment scaling by rank — a Cover Story for 1st, a Featured Interview for 2nd, and a Spotlight Q&A for 3rd.
- ₹5,000 worth of partner brand discounts and coupons
- A feature in WallMag Creator Magazine — Cover Story, Featured Interview or Spotlight Q&A by rank
- A Recognition Certificate naming your winning rank
- Brand collaboration opportunities with travel, tourism, camera-gear and hospitality partners
- A showcase across WallMag's social channels
Want to Be Next?
WallMag awards open regularly, across photography, music, dance and design. If your best work is sitting on your phone or a hard drive where nobody will ever see it, this is where it gets seen — judged in the open, by a community and a jury, with your name on it.
Congratulations to Shivaji, Sanjay and Arnab — and to all 339 creators who entered this edition. Every entry was seen, voted on and officially ranked, and your certificate is waiting on your My Submissions tab.
