This year’s winners of AOP’s Emerging Talent Award are photographers to watch

The Association of Photographers, or AOP, has announced the winners of its 2026 Emerging Talent Award, highlighting up-and-coming photographers who have been working in the field for fewer than three years.

This year’s Gold winner is Austin Bradley, who photographed a highline across Sólheimajökull Glacier in Iceland, intent on illustrating how much the glacier has been shrinking due to climate change. The Silver award goes to Ritchie Elder, who documented the last day of class at a newly-established Ukrainian Saturday School in Scotland.

You can see some of that work, and read more of the story behind it, below. If you want to see the work from other finalists, you can find a gallery on AOP’s website.

Gold award: 57 Metres : Iceland’s Shrinking Glacier by Austin Bradley

Austin Bradley / AOP

According to AOP’s press release, Bradley’s goal was to visually show how far a specific glacier was retreating every year. “He rigged a 57-metre highline across Sólheimajökull Glacier in Iceland, with the length of the line representing approximately how far the glacier retreats each year due to a warming climate. Over several carbon offset days Bradley worked with highliners, a small film crew and a glaciologist, to document the process, which will later be released as a documentary.”

Austin Bradley / AOP

The shots were taken on a DJI Mini 5 Pro, though there are others in the series that appear to have been taken on a standard camera.

Silver award: Saturday School by Ritchie Elder

Ukrainian child photographed on the last day of term at the Ukrainian Saturday School.Ritchie Elder / AOP

According to the press release, the series by Ritchie Elder documents a school that “provides Ukrainian children displaced by the war with the opportunity to learn Ukrainian language, culture, and history alongside their mainstream education and plays an important role in helping young people maintain a connection to their heritage while building new lives in Scotland.”

This photo featuring Ukrainian dancers, is from another of Elder’s series highlighted by AOP called “Belonging.”Ritchie Elder / AOP

Most of the shots are portraits, taken with a Canon EOS R6 and Canon RF 50mm F1.2 L USM lens, with Ritchie working “closely with the children, their parents, and school staff to create this series.”