Shipbreaking on the Bay of Bengal Wins Siena Drone Photo Contest
An enormous liquefied natural gas carrier stranded on the mudflats of Bangladesh has won the top prize at the 2026 Siena Drone Photo Awards, capturing a massive recycling operation from a bird’s-eye view. npr.org reported that photographer George Steinmetz claimed the overall winner title with an aerial image titled “Shipbreaking on the mudflats, Bay of Bengal,” depicting workers using blow torches and winches to dismantle the vessel piece by piece.
The winning image presents a stark visual of the shipbreaking industry along a 13-mile coastal strip north of Chattogram (Chittagong), according to npr.org. Steinmetz spent several days photographing the site at low tide to expose the surrounding mudflats and contrast the mammoth scale of the tanker against workers who appeared like ants near its hull. The industry itself faces sustained criticism from environmental organizations, human rights groups, labor unions, and non-governmental organizations over unchecked pollution, chemical runoff, and dangerous working conditions.
Decades of Aerial Photography Leading to the Bay of Bengal
Steinmetz pursued aerial imagery long before commercial drones transformed the medium. After graduating from Stanford University with a degree in geophysics in 1979, he first dreamed of photographing landscapes from above while hitchhiking across Africa on the roofs of trucks, npr.org reported. In 1996, National Geographic financed an aerial photography project around the Sahara, prompting Steinmetz to learn how to fly a motorized paraglider that he likened to sitting on the front of a spoon.
Securing access to the shipbreaking yards proved difficult because shipyard owners remain wary of journalists and photographers due to intense scrutiny over environmental and labor practices. Undeterred, he surveyed the entire coastline north of Chattogram with his drone until he found a tanker in a striking state of disassembly, eventually convincing the vessel’s owner to allow him to photograph it.
Global Landscapes Captured from the Sky
The 2026 competition recognized numerous other aerial perspectives from across the globe, highlighting natural wonders, wildlife, and human traditions.
In East Java, Indonesia, French-British photographer Colas Decloitre captured an imposing horseshoe-shaped waterfall at Tumpak Sewu while Mount Semeru erupted in the background, sending smoke and a glowing red ash trail into the sky. Decloitre noted that capturing the exact alignment of the waterfall and the active volcano required a drone, as photographers can normally only view the waterfall from its immediate side.
Additional recognized entries include Isabella Tabacchi’s photograph of a glowing scoria cone in the volcanic deserts of the Argentine Puna, and her image titled “Alien Land” depicting millions of years of sediment deposition and erosion in Mangystau, Kazakhstan, as reported by vpm.org. Holly Kirkland photographed lesser flamingos flying over the caustic soda waters of Lake Natron on the Tanzania-Kenya border from an open-door helicopter using a Sony A1 Mark II camera.
Worth a look