These stunning iPhone Photography Award 2024 winners show you don’t need an iPhone 16 upgrade after all

The iPhone 16 Pro rumors might be promising some improved optical zoom and a better wide-angle camera, but the new winners of the iPhone Photography Awards 2024 show you don’t need a new iPhone to take great snaps.

The competition, now in its 17th year, runs independently of Apple but has become a staple in the smartphone-snapping calendar. It claims to be the world’s longest-running iPhone photography competition – and as you’d expect, some fine photos are spread across its 15 categories.

The iPhone 15 Pro Max is understandably the most well-represented camera in the awards – it was used for 10 out of the 46 award-winning shots. However, the awards are by no means dominated by new Apple models. The second most popular phones were the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone X, which were used in four winning shots each.

A couple of photos were even shot on iPhones that won’t even support iOS 18 when it lands next month. First place in the ‘Animals’ category (shot by Colin Hoskins) was taken on an iPhone 7 Plus, which launched back in 2016. Meanwhile, the top spot in the ‘People’ category (an eerie shot of some renovators at an LA motel by Brooke Wilen) was taken on an iPhone 6S. ‘The best camera is the one you have with you’ may be a cliché, but it’s also true.

What’s clear from the winners below is that composition and a little editing both trump hardware these days. Very few shots appear to be ‘straight out of camera’, with many displaying the tell-tale signs of color tweaks from the best photo editing apps like Snapseed and Lightroom, or a tasteful black-and-white conversion.

While the competition’s rules stated that “photos should not be altered in Photoshop or any desktop image processing program”, that does leave the room open for mobile editors – and there’s nothing wrong with that in our book.

Looking for some World Photography Day inspiration? Here’s a gallery of all of this year’s award winners, and the iPhone that was used for each shot…

Overall winner

A boy at an aquarium looking at a shark

Grand Prize Winner, by Erin Brooks (shot on an iPhone 15 Pro Max) (Image credit: IPPA Awards / Erin Brooks)

The judges chose the shot above, Boy Meets Shark by Erin Brooks, as their Grand Prize Winner. Erin is no stranger to the awards, having previously come second in the Portrait category in 2022 and winning the Series category in 2021. The black-and-white shot was taken on an iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Taken in Tampa, Florida, the shot captures the moment a young boy comes close to a huge shark – behind the safety of glass at least – with the judges stating it symbolizes “the innocence of youth juxtaposed with the mysteries of the deep sea.” The processing also fittingly gives it a picture-book quality.

It certainly wasn’t the only standout entry, though, as you can see in the galleries of the other category winners below…