“A historic Italian theatre from the 1700s,” © Alessia Santambrogio, courtesy of PERSPA Awards. Photographer of the Year, First place: Cultural, Historic & Heritage, Open Color, Honorable mention: Fine Art
Rows of empty seats sit beneath tiers of ornate boxes inside an Italian theatre dating from the eighteenth century. Alessia Santambrogio’s central viewpoint brings the painted ceiling and the auditorium into a single view. Warm lighting reveals the repeated balconies without losing the room’s overall shape.
A small shift in perspective can completely transform the way something looks. This seems especially true in architectural photography. A sprawling building can suddenly feel intimate in a closely cropped shot of an alcove, while wood can look lyrical thanks to the composition’s sweeping curves. Brilliant architecture sits at the intersection of design and artistry, and a new photo contest recognizes the images that make structures shine, both on grand and granular scales. The 2026 PERSPA Awards recently shared its winning images from Architectural Perspective, the prize’s inaugural season.
The PERSPA Awards honor images of the built environment, showcasing historic and contemporary structures through categories including Stairs, Modern Architecture, Cultural, Geometry, and Human and Architecture. It also crowns a Photographer of the Year, with Alessia Santambrogio being the first person to win the top prize for her series depicting an 18th-century Italian theater.
Santambrogio chose to focus on the grandeur of the architecture. No patrons sit in the seats, making the interior’s beauty our sole focus. Santambrogio, whose background is in opera photography, captures a singular view from the stage, taking in the ornate boxes lining the theater, its illuminated archways, the striking ceiling with a large painting and the modeled flourishes surrounding it. At once, the image highlights how function and beauty aren’t mutually exclusive. Here, the grandeur complements the live artistry on stage.
Scroll down to see more from the first edition of the PERSPA Awards, from category winners showcasing contemporary housing and public spaces to abstracted studies of form.
Brilliant architecture sits at the intersection of design and artistry, and a new photo contest recognizes the images that make structures shine, on both grand and granular scales.
“Colors in the Nasir al-Mulk Mosque,” © Emily M. Wilson, courtesy of PERSPA Awards. Honorable Mention, Historic & Heritage
Sunlight passes through the stained glass of the Nasir al-Mulk Mosque in Shiraz, Iran, laying patches of color across columns and carpets. Emily M. Wilson’s photograph shows how the coloured light changes the interior, extending the patterns of the windows well beyond their frames.
The 2026 PERSPA Awards recently shared its winning images from Architectural Perspective, the prize’s inaugural season.
“European architecture,” © Eric Chatelain, courtesy of PERSPA Awards. Second Place: Modern Architecture
The Kuggen building in Gothenburg, Sweden, appears as a cluster of brightly coloured facets. Eric Chatelain selected it for a series made during travels across Europe. A close view of its curved exterior lets red, orange and green panels dominate, with only a little sky left around them.
The winners showcase contemporary housing, public spaces, and abstracted studies of form.
“The Arcade Sun,” © Petr Vapenik, courtesy of PERSPA Awards. First Place, Geometry
A yellow lamp becomes a small sun at the center of an arcade ceiling near Wenceslas Square in Prague. Petr Vapenik made the photograph just after a spring storm darkened the sky enough to switch on the interior lighting. The bright circle interrupts the ceiling’s otherwise orderly grid.
“Endless Staircase by Ólafur Elíasson,” © Massimo Borchi, courtesy of PERSPA Awards. First Place, Stairs
Steps and railings curl into a loop in Massimo Borchi’s photograph of Ólafur Elíasson’s endless staircase. Viewed from below, the structure becomes difficult to follow: the eye travels upward, turns and seems to arrive where it began. Black and white keeps attention on the route of the stairs.
“La Mágia de las formas y la luz,” © Jordi Egea Torrent, courtesy of PERSPA Awards. First Place: Black and White
A sequence of white curves rises above a dark reflection in Jordi Egea Torrent’s study of Zaha Hadid’s architecture. The view brings several of the building’s flowing forms together, from a tall folded edge to lower, wave-like volumes. Black and white emphasizes the transition from light to shadow.
“Breath of Light, Wings of Peace,” © Aubra Franklin, courtesy of PERSPA Awards. First Place, Fine Art
The white ribs of Santiago Calatrava’s Oculus spread between the towers of Lower Manhattan. Aubra Franklin photographs the building in the pale light of dawn, with its entrance glowing against the quiet plaza. The contrast between the low, winged form and the vertical skyline gives the scene its structure.
“Suspended time,” © Stephane Navailles, courtesy of PERSPA Awards. Second Place: Human & Architecture
A small figure stands within a sequence of enormous circular frames. Above, a curved glass roof admits daylight into the space. Stephane Navailles aligns the openings so that one seems to sit inside another, producing a picture in which the viewer keeps looking for the next layer.
“Symmetric Living,” © Florian Kriechbaumer, courtesy of PERSPA Awards. First Place: Symmetry
Four houses occupy the tip of a frond on Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. Seen directly from above, their pools, roofs and gardens form a near mirror image. Florian Kriechbaumer timed the photograph so that the shadows reinforced the arrangement, with sand and turquoise water framing the scene.
“Suburban Dystopia,” © Florian Kriechbaumer, courtesy of PERSPA Awards. First Place, Aerial
Rows of nearly identical villas repeat across a purpose-built community on the outskirts of Dubai. A change from pale yellow to pink divides the grid, while straight roads organize the houses into regular blocks. Florian Kriechbaumer’s aerial view makes the scale of that repetition visible at once.
“Topologie_urbaine,” © Misa ATO, courtesy of PERSPA Awards. Second Place: Black and White
Balconies project from L’Arbre Blanc in Montpellier like a stack of open drawers. Misa ATO’s low viewpoint separates the pale platforms against a dark sky, while their railings and slatted canopies create a second layer of fine lines. The photograph is part of the series Topologie_urbaine.
“Summer swim at Molitor,” © Soo Burnell, courtesy of PERSPA Awards. First Place, France
Two swimmers sit at the edge of Piscine Molitor, facing the water beneath the tiers of its Art Deco building. Their matching poses and bathing caps echo the orderly architecture. Soo Burnell leaves the pool almost empty, allowing the pale blue, yellow and white to carry the picture.
“Pretty in Pink,” © Jeannette Matthies, courtesy of PERSPA Awards. First Place, Human and Architecture
A small figure sits where two vast walls meet, almost lost between pale pink and cream surfaces. Jeannette Matthies photographed a housing development with very little of its surroundings in view. The narrow strip of ground is enough to show just how large the walls are.
“Aonde já foi casa,” © Carlos Archer, courtesy of PERSPA Awards. Honorable Mention: Historic & Heritage
Leaves cover the floor and climb the iron framework of a disused greenhouse in Porto. Carlos Archer photographed it for a series about places that were once homes. The curved glazing still encloses the room, while plants have spread into the space people left behind.
“Brilliant Star City,” © DI CHANG, courtesy of PERSPA Awards. Second Place: Industrial, Third Place: Night & Low Light
Pipes, towers and platforms shine blue and gold against the night in DI CHANG’s industrial series Brilliant Star City. The photographer describes a childhood fascination with illuminated factories seen from the road. Here, the dense network of lights makes an industrial structure resemble an elaborate city in miniature.
“Evening at the Registan,” © Emily M. Wilson, courtesy of PERSPA Awards.Second place: Cultural, Honorable mention: Historic & Heritage, Human & Architecture
Visitors cross the broad square of the Registan in Samarkand as evening light settles over its tiled façades and turquoise domes. Emily M. Wilson keeps the people in the foreground, some blurred by movement, so the monumental buildings remain part of a place being used rather than an empty architectural view.
“Gone Into the Woods,” © Dorota Qaid, courtesy of PERSPA Awards. Honorable mention: Abstract
What looks like a cavern is the interior of a souvenir shop at the National Museum of Qatar. Its design draws on a local cave. Dorota Qaid follows the rippling timber surfaces, where curved lighting and small recessed lamps reveal the construction behind the illusion.
“Glass Voyager,” © Theo Michael, courtesy of PERSPA Awards. Honorable mention: Fine Art
The glass sails of the Fondation Louis Vuitton become a vessel crossing a sea of clouds. Theo Michael used multiple exposures to develop the nautical idea in Frank Gehry’s design, turning an immovable building into an imagined ship under way.
