PRESS RELEASE
Tiago Mateus wins at the Natural Landscape Photography Awards
The Portuguese photographer won the "Project of the Year" category of the 2023 edition of the NLPA with a set of images taken in Portugal of the "Pinus Pinea" pine tree. The jury evaluated more than ten thousand images by photographers from all over the world in all categories.
Tiago Mateus won the "Project of the Year" category in the 2023 edition of the Natural Landscape Photography Awards (NLPA), one of the most prestigious international nature photography competitions, which received more than ten thousand entries this year. The category, which distinguishes the consistency and narrative of a portfolio of photographs centred on a theme, awarded first place, with a prize of 2000 dollars, to the Portuguese photographer's Pinus Pinea work, a project whose mission is to portray the survival and resilience of the pine species "Pinus Pinea" in Portugal in its relationship with the surrounding elements. The work, entirely in black and white photography, focused on ten images taken by Tiago Mateus over the last two years in Portugal's Setúbal and Serra do Montejunto regions.
According to Tiago Mateus, "The purpose of the Pinus Pinea project is to visually show the wild side inherent in this species of pine, which grows and adapts to the most varied natural adversities, in a clear example of Nature's strength." According to the photographer, this is a work that goes beyond a simple way of portraying these trees, which have 9% of their worldwide presence in Portuguese territory, giving the images, both through black and white and through the play of composition and lines, the feeling of brutality, grandeur and rawness of these pines.
“Angelical”, 2022, one of the awarded photos.
This has been one of the leading visual signatures of Tiago Mateus – whose work can be seen at tiagomateusphotography.com – who has focused his most recent artistic approach on high-contrast black and white photography of various natural environments, from the sea to the mountains, in what he calls a "Monochromatic Journey". The photographer, who lives in Portugal, in the Setúbal region, has won awards in some of the most acclaimed photography competitions and is also one of the permanent authors on the editorial board of Revista Perspetiva, a Portuguese digital publication entirely dedicated to art and nature photography.
This year's NLPA jury comprised five renowned international nature photographers: Theo Bosboom from the Netherlands, Charlotte Gibb and Michael Shainblum from the USA, Canadian photographer Viktoria Haack and Andy Mumford from Portugal.
About the Natural Landscape Photography Awards
The NLPA competition was created in 2021 by four landscape photographers – Tim Parkin, Matt Payne, Rajesh Jyothiswaran and Alex Nail – to create a platform for photographers who naturally portray the landscape. According to its mentors, this is a distinctive competition that aims to represent landscape photographers who recognize the power that comes from genuinely representing the natural world, whether they shoot digitally or on film, focusing on addressing the idea that photography's unique quality over other artistic mediums is its grounding in reality. The NPLA annually recognizes photographs in various categories such as Project of the Year, Grand Scenic, Intimate Landscapes, Abstracts or Details, Mountains, Water Worlds, Black and White, Nightscape, Environmental and Aerial, among other awards.
For more information:
Natural Landscape Photography Awards:
https://naturallandscapeawards.com
Tiago Mateus:
Press release by Ricardo Salvo