VE Grand Finale 2025 – Winners Announced!

The moment we’ve all been waiting for. We reveal the winners of this year’s awards, look back at the highlights, and celebrate the amazing talent in our community.

Comments

  1. lucyalcorn

    Finally watched this – thank you so much for the honour of highly commended in Fashion! (And a huge yes please to a beauty category for next year!)

    Thanks so much for running this competition, and congrats to all the winners 🙂

  2. Congratulations to all the winners and the great staff at Visual Education! It was a very busy year and unfortunately was not able to participate much in 2025. However, I’m passionate and inspired and plan on participating as much as I can in 2026!

  3. LHJ

    I’m in late and just got a big surprise seeing my photo getting the 3rd prize in Product photography ! I feel very honored and I’m so glad that my efforts are paying off, specially in that category ! 😊

  4. Competitions are very subjective and we can’t all be winners sadly. The comments from Tiago Moreira Martins are wholly inappropriate and somewhat of an insult bearing in mind that this is the best training platform available and Karl has 25 years experience in the industry. Perhaps Tiago should have counted to 10 before airing his comments that just sound like sour grapes.

    At the end of the day I am sure that everyone who entered, myself included, were a little disappointed that their images didn’t do better but the fact is some photographers are more skilled than others and the overall winner (Spyridon) in my opinion was head and shoulders above the rest of the field.
    The execution of some of his images was sublime.

    Instead of whingeing about the results, aim to improve your skills by learning on the platform. That’s why we are all here isn’t it?

    Congratulations to Spyridon and lets look forward to trying to give him a run for the money next year 🙂

    1. Tiago Moreira Martins

      Hello Gary,

      Please try to understand what I am saying. Opinions are allowed in this world, and expressing critical thought should not be confused with disrespect. I never intended to insult anyone, nor diminish the work of others.

      I would ask that you read my latest comment carefully, as I made a clear effort to clarify my position, acknowledge my mistakes in tone, and explain my perspective with respect. Having the courage to express thought and critical opinion is an essential part of any creative and educational environment.

      Best regards,
      Tiago Moreira Martins

  5. mdphoto

    I loved the show, I was personally surprised and grateful to score 2nd on Architecture, you just made my Friday and weekend. I am looking forward to next year.

    In case you want to know more, the building is located in San Diego California, the family was there to perform some Portuguese Embassy paper work but I had to work from the hotel while the family went on a boat trip to Coronado Island.
    At the end of the day I went to catchup with them for diner, sun was setting but still high enough on the sky and, when I turned opposite to the pier I saw how the sun reflected on the building and I decided to take the shot. The building has some sort of aluminum structure as a facade so the contrast was high hence the black and white conversion, no artificial lights on it.

    Again, thanks for the education effort you put on the platform and have a Wonderfull Holidays all of you and your families! 🥂🍻🍸

    Manuel D.

  6. Tiago Moreira Martins

    Good afternoon. I don’t want to sound rude or inappropriate, but I need to express my honest opinion.

    Fundamentally, I felt the selections were redundant and not particularly assertive across certain categories.

    I’m genuinely disappointed with this year’s Objects, Conceptual & Still Life category. The selected works felt obvious and predictable in their execution, lacking originality and meaningful conceptual ambition. You are killing true creativity in that sense — the true connection with the world of ideas and adventure. The only real excellence I’ve seen this year is in the product, fashion, and landscape categories.

    Beyond that, the lack of technical understanding in some awarded images is astonishing. You cannot give a winner to a basic tre-flip catch in skateboarding photography — it simply doesn’t work like that. It was one of the weakest skateboarding shots I’ve seen: no front-foot catch, no decisive moment, no understanding of the sport or its culture and more…

    Regarding portraiture, it felt like you prioritised an entry-level standard, something suited for someone just beginning to explore the craft. Portraiture requires definition, light, expression, mood, style, concept, bravery, storytelling, graphic power, involvement, soul, and emotional expressiveness. That is portraiture — and it was missing.

    As for architecture, it felt empty and ambiguous — surprisingly weak for a category that should demand clarity, structure, vision, and precision. In my view, the standards must be significantly higher next year.

    Beside that, congratulations to this educational platform and its workers, and to the winners as well.
    I am only sharing this comment with the intention of encouraging evolution and broader thinking across certain areas of the competition.

    Thank you for everything.

    1. Hi, I have to say that I think your message is totally inappropriate and somewhat insulting given that you combine it with praise about our platform in the same note. The winner of the objects, conceptual and still life category was a fantastic image as were many of the other entries. To say we are ‘killing creativity’, given our position in the industry and what we do is probably one of the most insulting things I’ve heard.

      Regarding your comments on the skateboarder image in the sports category – we’re not here to judge the skateboarding skills, we are here to judge the photography and the dynamics of the image. Your comment is completely irrelevant, if the image had been a formula 1 car crashing then it could still be a spectacular sports image even though it demonstrated bad driving skills?

      Finally other than your own images that you entered, how are drawing your conclusions compared to the standard of the winners? Surely as you don’t know any of the other entries, other than your own, you must be comparing the winners to your own images which on this occassion didn’t find any success? Surely your comments are therefore more of a gripe about that then anything else? Against what metric can you be making these comments other than against your own work?

      The team and I spend hours and hours reviewing the entries and carefully considering the quality of the work of each entry and the narrative, the skill behind the photography and the final deliverable. We all agreed on our final choices and that comes from a collective of people with over 100 years working professionally in the creative industry.

      It’s very sad to read a comment like this that seems only begrudged that their own work didn’t do better? Take a moment to reflect on your comments and what they mean, what they imply and how they would be received by the other worthy recipients in this years awards and leaderboard and those that work here involved in the judging process.

      If you feel that strongly about it then maybe this platform is not the place for you. (also for anyone else reading this comment, please take the time to watch this video and see the standards of entries for yourself).

      1. Tiago Moreira Martins

        Good afternoon,

        First of all, it was never my intention to sound insulting or to disrespect anyone’s work. I respect the effort of the entire team involved and acknowledge the time dedicated to the evaluation process. In that sense, I admit that I went too far with some of my wording and that I made mistakes in both form and tone; I should have expressed my opinion in a more measured way to avoid negative interpretations, and for that I apologise.

        That said, this does not change my view regarding certain parameters that, in my opinion, a photography competition should value, analyse, and research, nor does it invalidate the right of a student on this platform to express a well-founded critique. People are entitled to their opinions, and that does not invalidate anything. The existence of different perspectives is part of any creative and educational process; it is extremely valuable and can lead to meaningful evolution.

        Objectively speaking, when analysing the winning photograph and comparing it with “The Face of Poseidon”, which I submitted, I expected the jury to place greater weight on criteria such as conceptual ambition and structure, graphic strength of the object, visual impact within still life, as well as photographic skill and vision. I am not claiming that my image should have won — that decision naturally belongs to the jury — but I believe that, in terms of conceptual density and visual impact, the works do not operate on the same level. From that perspective, I do not consider it the correct choice for a winning photograph, as it presents an inoffensive and conceptually empty approach.

        Thinking differently allows us to explore new perspectives and avenues of discovery. In my view, these comments are important because their intention is to elevate thinking and encourage potential evolution; with education and civility, we can and should express critical opinions.

        In my reading, my proposal presented a deeper conceptual construction and a stronger, more enriching visual intention across all levels of photographic execution. It was from this difference in interpretation that my disagreement arose. I believe the term conceptual inherently demands a high level of conceptual development, and in that sense, I genuinely believe this category would benefit from evolving further, allowing participants to push creativity beyond safer boundaries.

        With full respect and fairness, I am not questioning the commitment of the jury nor the dignity of the winner; we simply hold different views and interpretations. I am expressing a difference in criteria, with the conviction that this category would benefit from a broader and more rigorous analytical framework in future editions.

        Regarding the sports category and skateboarding photography, it is essential to understand that skate photography cannot separate photographic technique from skate technique, nor from the momentum of the action itself. I am referring specifically to the catch of the trick — in this case, a 360 flip. Within skate photography, and within skate culture and community, failing to capture the catch of a trick fundamentally invalidates the image as skate photography; these are established rules of the discipline, and in this regard the competition falls short.

        In the winning image of the sports category, the skateboard itself is not even fully visible. This alone invalidates the photograph within the context of skate photography, because skateboarding is a sport with its own technical and visual standards. That image does not merit being a winner due to its lack of proper execution. The photographer, the photograph, the trick, and the skater cannot be separated — they become one through correct execution of the image. This is both my view and a core principle of skate photography.

        What I am stating here is a widely recognised fact within the skateboarding world. To evolve, we must understand what we are evaluating, acknowledge mistakes, and allow space for growth. I openly acknowledge my own mistakes, but I firmly believe that well-founded opinions should be valued, as their purpose is evolution — for the common good and for higher standards of execution.

        I have immense respect for all the work present on this platform and, in my view, it remains one of the strongest educational platforms in the world. That said, there is always room to see things from different angles. Expressing an opinion is not a crime.

        Best regards,
        Tiago Moreira Martins

Leave a Comment