Wait, They Actually Picked Winners For These Crazy Cool Photos? Check Out The 2025 Spotlight Awards!

Alongside Todd’s epic win, we’ve got cool shots by Alex Wallace (Corporate & Industrial, New Zealand), Dámaso Avila (Architecture & Interiors, Spain), and Hanna Kantor (Portraiture, Poland) to name a few.

This is the eighth year they’ve hunted down the best commercial photography around. A big crew of over 50 judges - including some big shot creative peeps from brands, magazines, and agencies worldwide - picked the winners from thousands of entries. Talk about tough competition!

One of the judges, Consuelo Bolea from Red Bull, says they look for more than just pretty pictures. They want shots that tell a story and make you feel something. No pressure, right?

Other judges hail from places like Mercedes-Benz, Vogue, Spotify, GQ, and Apple. So yeah, these winners got some pretty cool fans.

Also new this year: they added an AI Image Developing & Creating category (yep, robots helping out with art now). Aussie creative Vilka (aka Somm_Bird) snagged that award. Plus, there’s a fresh Emerging Talent category for newbies ready to rock the photo world.

Each category gets one big winner, and from those, one lucky artist grabs the Grand Prize.

The prizes? Not just bragging rights. Sponsors like picdrop, ModelManagement.com, VSCO, Capture One, and Radiant Photo hooked these photographers up with fancy tools to keep the creativity flowing.

Mariela von Estorff, CEO of Production Paradise, sums it up: this contest is all about putting amazing photos right in front of top creative folks around the globe. Pretty sweet, huh?