The annual Close-up Photographer of the Year contest asks us to slow down and view the world through a more discerning lens. It’s sage advice, as these incredible zoomed-in images attest.
The annual contest, founded in 2018 and done in association with Affinity Photo, celebrates the best close-up, macro, and microphotography of the past year.
“One of the great joys of close-up photography is when you approach a subject with an air of curiosity so that even the most mundane object or scene becomes captivating,” Tracy Calder, a co-founder of the competition, wrote to me in an email. “This year I’ve been astonished by images of spiders in their rainbow-coloured webs, bottles transformed into seascapes, and slime moulds erupting out of dead vegetation.”
Nine categories were included for this year’s running of the contest, including a new Underwater category. A panel of expert judges evaluated thousands of images submitted from across the world. Here are our favorite zoomed-in images from the past year.
