Meet five photographers longlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize who are redefining how we see the landscape. These artists move beyond traditional depictions of place, experimenting with time, perception and materiality to transform the natural world into something immersive and unexpected. From long-exposure forests that blur movement and stillness, to layered scenes that collapse multiple viewpoints into a single frame, their works challenge the boundaries between reality and imagination. They offer fresh perspectives on landscape photography, reflecting innovation and engagement with the environment.
The force of nature is at the heart of Gjert Rognli’s artistic practice. He works across film, photography, sculpture and performance, often referencing his affiliation with Arctic Northern Norway: extreme light, pervasive darkness and the shifting seasons. He channels nature’s raw forces into his work, infusing it with a sense of the surreal and the mythological. The compositions float between surrealism and mythology, inspired by humanity’s urge to create mythology and a system of chaos in our time. His work has been exhibited worldwide, including at the prestigious Louvre Museum, as well as being presented at the COP27 and COP28 climate conferences in Egypt and Dubai.
Viet Ha Tran strives to paint the emotions and inner landscapes of female characters, creating a sense of intimacy with her camera. Thoughtful and lyrical, these photographs draw from poetry and philosophy, appearing to be freshly minted and timeless all at once. Her recent work displays a profound connection to the natural world, emphasising themes of sustainability and environmental awareness. The Vietnam-born, Madrid-based artist has collaborated with Amazon, Louis Vuitton and Samsung, and her work has been featured by major global media outlets. Named a “Top 25 Artist to Collect” in 2025 by Artsper, she is the first foreign Board Member of Spain’s Royal Photographic Society in its 125-year history.
Katarzyna Zub blends philosophy and visual art to interrogate images and their symbolic depths. Combining conceptual enquiry with photographic collage, she draws on her background in philosophy to explore both the material and spiritual facets of reality. Her compositions evoke a quiet urgency, inviting contemplation of nature and humanity’s estrangement. Layered imagery and thoughtful symbolism form the core of her work, calling for a renewed connection to the natural world amid growing societal disconnection. In doing so, Zub positions photography as a reflective space where perception slows, meaning unfolds and alternative ways of being might begin to take shape.
Anna Korbut is a photographer and visual artist from Ukraine, based in Switzerland. She experiments with different digital and analogue techniques, exploring the relationships between humans and nature, people and our own connection with inner selves. The artist deeply engages with the topic of nature, climate change and the problems facing the Anthropocene, a period of time defined by human habitation. In nude photography, she captures a person’s most human and authentic expression using carefully positioned light. Her works have been exhibited since 2012 in galleries and museums in Switzerland, Italy, Sweden, Italy, Greece and Ukraine. They are in collections in the Netherlands, Australia, Switzerland and Ukraine.
Joanna Vestey is an artist working with a combination of photography and sound. Her practice explores tracing and visualising time and stewardship. Since 2015, she has been developing ways to make work ‘beyond’ using traditional methods of photographing experimenting with long durational exposures and visualising sound and data-scapes. Travelling across the UK’s temperate rainforests, she created 3 Days | 2 Nights by capturing long-exposure photographs on film. Her large-format images, made by leaving shutters open for hours, evoke the healing qualities and vulnerability of these rare environments.
Words: Emma Jacob
Image Credits:
1&6. Joanna Vestey, Borrowdale Woods, Lake District, England (2023). From 3 Days | 2 Nights.
2. Gjert Rognli, Forces of Nature.
3. Viet Ha Tran, Ecosystem II.
4. Katarzyna Zub, The Rhythm of Change.
5. Anna Korbut, Pink Mountains from the series Dreaming about You and Mountains.
