Photography
Experience the next-level photography as winners crowned at Red Bull Illume
The overall and category winners of Red Bull Illume Image Quest 2023 have been revealed. Take a look at the best of the entries here.
Red Bull Illume is considered the pinnacle of adventure and action sports imagery and attracts submissions from amateur and professional photographers across the globe – from Red Bull’s world and beyond. The 2023 edition of Red Bull Illume was the seventh edition of the contest.
There were ten categories for photographers to enter their photos into - Innovation, Masterpiece, Creative, Emerging, Energy, Lifestyle, Photos of Instagram, Reels of Instagram, Playground and RAW - and the winning photographs in these categories feature ice climbers, kayakers, surfers, bikers, skaters and other athletes in some of the world’s wildest environments – as well as unusual urban locations.
Discover the story behind all the winning category images below.
01
Overall Winner and Innovation by MPB category winner – Krystle Wright
Krystle Wright
© Krystle Wright / Red Bull Illume
- Camera: Leica SL2
- Lens: APO-Vario-Elmarit-SL 90-280 f/2.8-4
- ISO: 3200
- F-Stop: 4
- Shutter Speed: 1/30
Krystle Wright, an Australian photographer with an affection for adventure, cinched both the Category Winner and Overall Winner for the Innovation by MPB. Her winning shot was taken in Long Canyon, Utah, United States, featuring climber Angela VanWiemeersch scaling a crack illuminated from within.
Wright’s vision came to life through a well-timed shoot amid a Moab heatwave, turning a trad climbing feature into a beacon of light against the enveloping darkness.
Wright says of the shot: "One day as I was driving to my local crag, an idea hit me like a lightning bolt where I conjured the concept of illuminating a crack from within on an iconic trad climb. After all, the crack is the feature of trad climbing and I wanted to search out the perfect fissure. As per usual, my timing is atrocious and a heatwave had descended onto Moab, which meant we only had a few precious shaded hours in the afternoon to rig the lights into the crack."
02
Masterpiece by Sölden – Lorenz Holder
Lorenz Holder
© Lorenz Holder / Red Bull Illume
- Camera: Canon EOS R5
- Lens: Canon RF 28–70mm F2L USM
- ISO: 200
- F-Stop: 8
- Shutter Speed: 1/640
Lorenz Holder from Germany won the Masterpiece by Sölden category. His shot of bike athlete Senad Grosic set the biker against a pastel maze in La Muralla Roja in Spain.
Holder says of the shot: "La Muralla Roja is a huge apartment complex in the Spanish town Calp and was built by Ricardo Bofill in 1969. The building is divided in different zones that are all colored differently in pastel tones, but work together beautifully. You feel instantly transferred into a different world. For this shot, I wanted to show the variety of pastel colors and different structures and compose this with a BMX-trick of Senad with the right balance of architecture and action sports. We had to wait a little bit, till the sun was at the right place, to illuminate all the scene pretty equally, so the colors of the building would show its full potential without having shadows within the image."
03
Creative – Delphin Montessuit
Delphin Montessuit
© Delphin Montessuit / Red Bull Illume
- Camera: Canon EOS 77D
- Lens: Canon EF-S 18–55mm
- ISO: 400
- F-Stop: 4
- Shutter Speed: 1/250
French photographer Delphin Montessuit's winning shot in the Creative category features ice climber Virgile Devin in a high-contrast, minimalist composition at L'Usine, Voreppe in France.
Montessui says of the shot: "L’Usine is a dry-tooling cave situated over an old factory. I got to shoot Virgile hooked to the roof of the cave, the bright light coming from the outside of the cave on the original shot gave me the idea of a high contrast minimalist collage. To create this image, I decided to push the boundaries of my creativity by merging my photography editing skills with modern technological advancements. I designed the scene using a digitally generated block of ice. By choosing black and white, I was able to express my love for simplicity and contrast, while recalling the greatness of the mountain with an oversized ice element."
04
Emerging with Canon – Gonzalo Robert Parraguez
Gonzalo Robert Parraguez
© Gonzalo Robert Parraguez / Red Bull Illume
- Camera: Sony α7 III
- Lens: 25mm
- ISO: 400
- F-Stop: 4
- Shutter Speed: 1/1000
Chilean photographer Gonzalo Robert Parraguez’s winning shot in the Emerging with Canon category features kayaker Kilian Ivelic Astorga on the whitewater of Maipo in his native Chile.
Parraguez says of the shot: "I think this is one of my favorite photos as it included a bit of everything. To get to the waterfall you had to drive two hours, walk ten minutes and then to take this photo I had to do a 15 meter rappel as the waterfall is in a deep canyon. To get in the position I wanted, the only way to get there was to rappel in. With Kilian, we have been filming and looking for places for a couple of years now and continuing to do these missions with him is one of my favorite things to do."
05
Energy – Ted Grambeau
Ted Grambeau
© Ted Grambeau / Red Bull Illume
- Camera: Leica SL2-S
- Lens: APO-Vario-Elmarit-SL 90-280 f/2.8-4
- ISO: 400
- F-Stop: 8
- Shutter Speed: 1/1000
Australian photographer Ted Grambeau’s winning shot in the Energy category features surfer James 'Jimmy' McKean mastering the swell at Shipstern Bluff, Tasmania, Australia.
Grambeau says of the shot: "One of the most extreme days at the incredibly challenging Shipstern Bluff on a remote stretch of coast in Tasmania, Australia. The irregular bathymetry creates steps in the wave that adds to the unpredictably and creates a spectacular platform at the base of passive imposing sea cliffs. Local legend Jimmy McKean navigates a series of irregular steps in the face of a giant southern ocean swell. The steps are somewhat unpredictable and add to the precarious nature of one of the world’s most spectacular and dangerous waves."
06
Lifestyle by COOPH – Ross Taylor
Ross Taylor
© Ross Taylor / Red Bull Illume
- Camera:Sony α6400
- Lens: Sigma 24–70mm f2.8
- ISO: 500
- F-Stop: 2.8
- Shutter Speed: 1/250
British photographer Ross Taylor’s winning shot in the Lifestyle by COOPH category features Jonathan Sapir and Jorden Brunshteen plus their surfboards arriving to Anchor Point, Taghazout, Morocco.
Taylor says of the shot: "I was out in Morocco on a surfing holiday with friends, which luckily happened to coincide with the first really good swell of the season slamming into the coast. The night before there was a real buzz of anticipation around the town, with everyone excitedly discussing if the swell was going to live up to expectation. The next morning, I eagerly pitched up to the carpark before sunrise and, through the twilight and mist, saw perfect peeling faces thundering down the point. A crowd of eager challengers quickly gathered readying themselves to do battle with what Mother Ocean was going to throw at them that day. When this retro ride overladen with all manner of surf craft pulled up I knew it was a composition too good to pass up. I hope this image bottles up just a little of the vibe which all us surfers know well; the excitement, anticipation and pure stoke of turning up to a spot to find the waves are even better than forecasted and it’s going to be a special day for all in attendance."
07
Photos of Instagram – Yhabril
Yhabril Moro
© Yhabril Moro / Red Bull Illume
- Camera: Sony α7 IV
- Lens: FE 12–24mm f2.8
- ISO: 1250
- F-Stop: 5.6
- Shutter Speed: 1/1600
Spanish photographer Yhabril’s winning shot in the Photos of Instagram category features snowboarder Alejandro Arellano in Punta Malacara, Spain.
Yhabril says of the shot: "After enjoying the recent snowfall in the resort, we usually look for places outside to build kickers and take advantage of the best moments of light for the shoots. The weather this day was very bad and it seemed that we were not going to be able to do anything, but after midday the clouds began to move and the friends' chat began to heat up, so we decided to go up and build. We arrived a little late and the sky closed again so we decided to do the job and leave it done for the next day, with the landing untouched. We were in darkness with everything almost finished when an evening glow began to enter in the distance. Alejan was working on the speed check and I was doing light tests with the flashes. It was an all or nothing bet to one try. Alejan is a motivated and qualified rider, capable of landing a huge first try backflip, so we went for it and we did it, that was the only jump that day, in the next moment the sky was dark again. In addition, the colors are a fundamental part of this photo, everything fits together, the blue tones are complementary to the orange and yellow ones, and there are times when this issue becomes crucial, that's why this photo is titled Psychology of Color."
08
Reels of Instagram – Gabriel Marwein
Gabriel Marwein
© Gabriel Marwein
- Camera: DJI Air 2S
- Lens: DJI 22mm f2.8
- ISO: 100
- F-Stop: 2.8
- Shutter Speed: 320
Indian photographer Gabriel Marwein’s winning shot in the Reels of Instagram category features BMXer Dolph Graham Kharrinam on his local patch of Lower Lachumiere, Shillong, India.
Marwein says of the reel: "Me and Dolph were planning to shoot for a short film. We never planned this. We were looking for good spots for our film and fortunately, we just gave this a try and it came out well. This could actually be our first intro to the film, we thought. Then I asked Dolph: "Let's try and put some sounds on it." We thought of using some music but we wanted to do something different. I actually had no recording device other than my phone. I took it out and recorded the audio step by step and it was right on track on what we wanted with our film."
09
Playground by Radiant Photo – JB Liautard
Jb Liautard
© Jb Liautard / Red Bull Illume
- Camera: DJI Air 2S
- Lens: DJI 22mm f2.8
- ISO: 100
- F-Stop: 2.8
- Shutter Speed: 1/1000
French photographer JB Liautard’s winning shot in the Playground by Radiant Photo features Enduro/Freeride MTB rider Kilian Bron in Nazca, Peru.
Liautard says of the shot: "We were shooting for a week around Cusco with the whole video team but when they left, we changed my flight to come to this place, I had to wait a couple more days at the hotel as Kilian had a race at the end of the week. The minute after he crossed the finish line, we took a car and drove 12 hours on mountain roads from 6pm to 6am. We arrived at the hotel in the morning and after a quick nap, we were headed to the highest dune in the world. We only had one evening and one morning there as our plane was leaving from Lima the next day. We had to have good weather and all conditions come together. I was suffering from a knee injury and had to climb up the 500m high dune with almost just one leg. I flew my drone once up there and the view was absolutely breathtaking. The wind just shaped that huge dune with a perfect pattern, the same pattern we can see on a way smaller scale. It was so perfect it almost looked fake. Once I decided which line I wanted Kilian to ride, it was go time and we were lucky enough that he made a turn at the perfect moment to lift up some sand. It was that one shot this whole part of the trip was all about."
10
RAW – Léo Grosgurin
Léo Grosgurin
© Léo Grosgurin / Red Bull Illume
- Camera: Nikon D5
- Lens: Sigma 85mm
- ISO: 320
- F-Stop: 1.4
- Shutter Speed: 1/250
French photographer Léo Grosgurin’s winning shot in the RAW category features MTB freerider Arthur Deblonde near a tree in Briançon, France.
Grosgurin says of the shot: "This was for me one of the most difficult shots to take. In a windy week, a lot of larch in the valley were losing their thorns. So we were looking for the most beautiful larch around Briançon in France, and fortunately came across this magnificent tree with the waterfalls as a backdrop. Everything was perfect. We came in the morning to create a jump, then had to find a yellow sweater for Arthur that would perfectly match the tree! I hooked a flash on a drone and had it flown over the jump and the tree, the drone fell several times due to the wind and the flash weight. Our shot window was very short, I absolutely wanted to have the waterfalls in the background while having the tree and Arthur well lit by the flash. A single test allowed us to have all the conditions united in a single perfect shot."