Kazushige Horiguchi’s image, titled Clownfish Hatchout Kazushige Horiguchi/UPY2026
There is a captivating otherness to underwater life, and these pictures from the Underwater Photographer of the Year contest portray it wonderfully.
The main image, above, shows a clownfish parent watching as the eggs it has been tending start to hatch – something the competition’s judges said they had never seen before. They also liked the “babies’ perspective”, with the clownfish looking much bigger than it really is.
This photo, by underwater photographer and journalist Kazushige Horiguchi, was the winner of the contest’s behaviour category. Horiguchi was told by a friend that clownfish eggs were about to hatch off Japan’s southernmost tip, Kagoshima prefecture, and took this image later that day with the help of a separate “snoot” light held in his other hand. “I have been photographing clownfish for over three years and pressed the shutter countless times that day, but this single image is the only one that truly succeeded,” Horiguchi says in his entry.
Anton Sorokin’s image, titled Egg Clutcher Anton Sorokin/UPY2026
Third in the behaviour category was this image of a California newt, above, taken in the San Francisco Bay Area. The appeal of this image comes from us misinterpreting what is happening – the newt seems to be protectively hugging her eggs, but is, in fact, merely clutching another female’s eggs as she prepares to lay her own. “Her holding onto the eggs this way is a lucky coincidence, but made for an exciting photo opportunity,” photographer Anton Sorokin admits in his entry.
Steven Kovacs’s image, titled Screaming Swallower Steven Kovacs/UPY2026
With its mouth wide open and its extraordinary fins spread wide, this stunning snaketooth fish looks as if it is preparing to fight, but photographer Steven Kovacs thinks it was actually yawning. He took the photo above, runner up in the portrait category, during a night dive off the coast of Florida. “[These fish] are notoriously difficult to photograph, as they have the annoying habit of hanging upside down in the water column, looking straight down,” Kovacs says in his entry. “I was very lucky one night to come across this beautiful individual, fully displaying its elegant fins.”
Matty Smith’s winning image, Rockpool Rookies Matty Smith/UPY2026
The overall winner of the competition was the image above of two southern elephant seal pups playing in a rockpool on the Falkland Islands. The cuteness factor is off the charts, but this photo also stands out for the extraordinary light and the quality of its “over-under” view. Photographer Matty Smith built a special dome to achieve this. “On the very first evening of my arrival, the sky ignited with colour,” he says in his entry. “I donned my dry suit and rushed into the water, capturing a handful of frames before the light vanished.”
You can see more of the winning photos .
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