Steinmetz's Drone Shot of Bangladesh Shipbreaking Wins Top Prize

Aerial photography has shifted from a specialized niche to a primary tool for documenting global industry and environment. The 2026 Siena Drone Photo Awards recently announced its winners, with George Steinmetz taking the top prize for a image of the shipbreaking industry in Bangladesh.

Steinmetz’s winning photograph, titled "Shipbreaking on the mudflats, Bay of Bengal," captures a liquid natural gas tanker stranded on the mudflats north of Chattogram. The vessel, used for transporting cooking fuel, is shown partially dismantled as workers mill around its steel hull. The award recognized the bird's-eye view that reveals landscapes and livelihoods often invisible from the ground.

Steinmetz, who studied geophysics at Stanford, has long been interested in the relationship between human populations and the environment. He viewed the shipbreaking strip as a massive example of recycling. Securing access was difficult because shipyard owners are wary of photographers due to criticism regarding pollution and labor conditions. Local photographers initially warned him that gaining permission would be nearly impossible. He spent several days returning to the site, waiting for the correct tide level to expose the mudflats and make the workers appear like ants against the massive hull.

Other winners in the competition focused on the Global South. Dilek Yurdakul, an Ankara-based photographer and lawyer, won first place in the People section. Her image shows hundreds of handmade carpets spread across open fields in Döşemealtı, near Antalya, Türkiye. The traditional process uses intense sunlight to fade the vibrant colors of the rugs. Yurdakul traveled six hours from Ankara to capture the scene, describing the fields as a giant patchwork quilt that highlights the scale of human labor.

In the Nature category, Colas Decloitre received a high commendation for a photo of Tumpak Sewu waterfall in East Java, Indonesia. The Boston-based photographer captured the horseshoe-shaped falls at sunrise with Mount Semeru erupting in the background. Decloitre noted that a drone was the only way to align the waterfall and the active volcano in a single frame. Another Nature commendation went to Isabella Tabacchi for "The Last Ember," a shot of a volcanic cone in the Argentine Puna. Tabacchi captured the image during an exploratory flight, noting that the geometry of the lava field was more powerful than the traditional golden hour light.

Holly Kirkland also received a commendation in the Nature category for "What Lies Beneath." The image, taken near the Tanzania-Kenya border, shows lesser flamingos flying over Lake Natron. Unlike other entries, this photo was taken from a helicopter using a Sony A1 Mark II camera. Kirkland, a former kindergarten teacher from Delaware, is planning to relocate to Kenya to expand her aerial portfolio. The soda lake environment, rich in dissolved sodium carbonate, supports a large population of flamingos that have evolved leathery skin and salt glands to withstand the caustic waters.

The awards showcase how aerial perspectives reveal geological and industrial details that ground-level views miss. From the mudflats of Bangladesh to the sediment layers in Mangystau, Kazakhstan, the winning images emphasize the scale of natural and human-made structures. The competition accepts various aerial methods, including drones and helicopters, to document the world from above.