An underwater photograph of a cauliflower soft coral in Indonesia has been awarded the grand prize in the Close-Up Photographer of the Year (CUPOTY) competition. Australian photographer Ross Gudgeon won the seventh edition of the international contest with his image, titled “Fractal Forest,” taken in the Lembeh Strait.
Gudgeon’s winning photograph depicts the interior of the coral, revealing a complex network of polyps. He achieved the unique perspective by using a Nauticam EMWL probe lens, carefully threading it through the coral’s branches without causing damage. “Named for its cauliflower-like form, this soft coral is made up of countless small, rounded polyps that give it a puffy texture,” Gudgeon explained in a press release. “I wanted to explore a perspective that isn’t possible with conventional lenses, and an underwater probe lens allowed me to do that.”
The Close-Up Photographer of the Year competition, based in the UK, attracted over 12,000 entries from photographers in 63 countries this year. A jury of 22 experts – photographers, naturalists, and editors – spent more than 20 hours reviewing submissions to select the winners across 11 categories.
Other category winners showcased a diverse range of subjects and techniques. Imre Potyó of Hungary won the Insects category with a photograph of swarming Danube mayflies, a species that had been locally extinct for 40 years before returning due to improved water quality. Laurent Hesemans of Costa Rica took first place in the Invertebrate Portrait category with an image of a moth. Sho Hoshino of Japan won the Intimate Landscapes category with a photograph of a tree covered in rime ice, and Minghui Yuan of China won the Plants category with a depiction of decaying lotus leaves and floating fern.
CUPOTY co-founder Tracy Calder described this year’s competition as the toughest yet. “The winning image embodies everything close-up photography can achieve – it shows us a perspective we’ve never seen before and reveals hidden beauty in a familiar subject,” Calder said. “The judges were captivated.”
The winning images and a selection of Top 100 photographs are available for viewing at cupoty.com.