World's Best Adventure and Action Sports Photos Revealed

Press Release / 17.12.2023

For the first time in its 17-year history, a female photographer has taken the grand prize at Red Bull Illume, the world’s largest imagery contest that celebrates adventure and action sports. Australian photographer Krystle Wright convinced the Red Bull Illume Judging Panel consisting of more than 50 renowned judges with her shot of climber Angela VanWiemeersch illuminated in a crack, deep within Long Canyon, Utah, United States. It also wins the Innovation by MPB category.
 
An emotional Krystle Wright said: "This is incredible. I wanted to earn my place in this industry and my work to get recognized. Red Bull Illume is the only platform that truly recognizes what we do."

Wright's winning shot is one of ten awe-inspiring works to win a category winner prize at the Red Bull Illume Winner Award Ceremony in Sölden, Austria. The mountain village hosted the ceremony for the first time, alongside workshops, side-events with Red Bull Illume Partners, Canon, MPB, Radiant Photo and COOPH. It was a gathering of some of the biggest names in adventure and action sports photography which included former winners Fred Mortagne, Lorenz Holder and Ben Thouard, who also gave talks before the Winner Award Ceremony. 

Red Bull Illume is considered the pinnacle of adventure and action sports imagery and attracts submissions from amateur and professional photographers around the world – from Red Bull’s world and beyond. The ten category winners of the seventh edition of the contest feature ice climbers, kayakers, surfers, bikers, skaters and other athletes in some of the world’s wildest environments – as well as unusual urban locations.

Lorenz Holder, a two-time overall winner of Red Bull Illume, won the Masterpiece by Sölden category after once again teaming up with the BMX rider Senad Grosic in another unique location, this time a brightly colored post-modern apartment complex. Emerging with Canon, the category for young talents, was won by Gonzalo Robert Parraguez for his shot of kayaker Kilian Ivelic Astorga. The renowned surf photographer Ted Grambeau won Energy for his shot of Jimmy McKean at the base of a giant Southern Ocean swell.

The top five images from each of the ten categories were unveiled earlier this month and can be viewed here. They now form a unique exhibition, beginning in Sölden with the images displayed on 2x2m outdoor lightboxes until December 21. The exhibition also travels to Germany for the Berlin Travel Festival (December 1 - 3) then to Salzburg’s Hangar-7 (December 13 – February 4, 2024), before setting off to illuminate other parts of the world.

Other story highlights from the Red Bull Illume Image Quest 2023 include: 

• Winning images were selected blind by an international 52-member jury who judged the shots without any information about the image, or the photographer

• Krystle Wright was previously a category finalist in 2013 and has made the top 25 in 2013 and 2019

• Among the top 250 is paraplegic photographer Ydwer van der Heide

• Two-time overall winner Lorenz Holder is once again recognized for his extraordinary work, winning the Masterpiece by Sölden category and making it into the top 25 of the same category as well as Playground by Radiant Photo

• Jan Fassbender who won Best Boardsports Photo by Blue Tomato came back from brain cancer to shoot his outstanding image