Colombian photographer Alex Visbal took first place in the “Wetlands: The Bigger Picture” category at the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026 competition, organized by London’s Natural History Museum. His photograph, The Great Divide, shows how human intervention can alter the ecological balance of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, United States.
The recognition places Visbal among the winners of a competition that brings together images from photographers around the world and uses photography to document biodiversity, capture natural phenomena, and draw attention to environmental threats. The 2026 edition received a record 65,403 entries from 121 countries and territories.
Although Visbal won the top prize in his category, the competition’s overall winner was Italian photographer Federico Veronesi, who received the Wildlife Photographer of the Year title for his photograph The Aftermath, which shows a female elephant carrying her dead calf.
The Great Divide: The photograph that earned Colombian photographer Alex Visbal recognition at Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026
Visbal’s winning image was taken at Stansbury Bay on Utah’s Great Salt Lake. From an aerial perspective, the photograph captures a striking contrast between two areas of the lake, separated by a human-made structure.
On one side, a stretch of pink water stands out, while lighter colors dominate the other. The difference in color is more than a visual effect: it reflects environmental conditions that influence the composition and behavior of microorganisms in the water.
According to the description published by London’s Natural History Museum, the pink hue comes from microorganisms that thrive in extremely salty water. These conditions occur when an area becomes isolated from its freshwater supply, disrupting the wetland’s ecological balance.
The photograph documents the consequences that human intervention can have on a vast ecosystem. The organizing institution notes that the lake’s ecology is undergoing significant deterioration associated with industrial use, upstream water diversions, and climate change.
Since the photograph was taken, the state of Utah has introduced management measures for the area as part of its conservation efforts. This context adds an environmental dimension to the work: beyond depicting a striking landscape, the photograph documents a place whose transformation is linked to human decisions about water use.
The image was selected for its ability to make an environmental disruption visible from the air—one that might be difficult to understand through isolated observations from the ground. The line dividing the two sections of the lake becomes the central element of a composition that reveals the consequences of altering the natural flow of water.
Alex Visbal and his focus on environmental aerial photography
Visbal is a Colombian photographer specializing in aerial perspectives and environmental documentation. His background in industrial engineering is also an important part of his professional profile. According to the biography published by the Natural History Museum, he combines that training with a photographic practice focused on identifying patterns and transformations across large areas of land.
He works from small aircraft, helicopters, and drones, for which he is a certified pilot. From these platforms, he photographs landscapes, bodies of water, and structures that reveal how human activities reshape the environment.
His approach goes beyond capturing images of remote locations or visually striking landscapes. He seeks to document environmental processes and show the relationships between the land, human infrastructure, and natural resources. Aerial photography allows him to identify changes at a scale that can sometimes only be appreciated by viewing an entire region.
This perspective also distinguishes his work from other forms of wildlife photography that focus primarily on animal portraits or scenes of animal behavior. In Visbal’s work, the landscape becomes a source of information about ecological transformations and the consequences of human decisions.
Water: A documentary project exploring the human impact on water
The Great Divide is part of Water, a long-term photographic project in which Visbal documents lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastlines, and other bodies of water from an aerial perspective.
The initiative aims to record the changes these environments undergo and reveal the human footprint on them. Through his images, the photographer builds a visual record of places where natural processes, industrial activity, and changes in water availability intersect.
The award-winning photograph from Utah reflects this approach by connecting a powerful visual composition with a specific environmental issue. The contrast between the two sections of the lake illustrates how isolation from a freshwater source can alter an ecosystem’s conditions.
In addition to Water, Visbal is developing CAOS, a project focused on visually examining the organization of large human and urban systems. Both initiatives reflect his interest in identifying patterns within complex structures and using photography as a starting point for examining how societies occupy and transform their surroundings.
A career marked by international awards and publications
The 2026 award adds to Visbal’s previous achievements in international photography. His career includes recognition from the Smithsonian Photo Contest, the Siena Drone Photo Awards, and PHotoESPAÑA, competitions and platforms that showcase different approaches to documentary and artistic photography.
His images have also appeared in international publications such as National Geographic, TIME, The Telegraph, and Smithsonian Magazine, according to the biographical information published by London’s Natural History Museum.
These publications and awards have helped bring visibility to a body of work that combines visual exploration with the documentation of environmental phenomena. His recognition at Wildlife Photographer of the Year marks another milestone in that career, this time with an image that places the relationship between human intervention and the health of aquatic ecosystems at the forefront