The 2025 PSECCO Photo Contest results have been announced!

August 19, 2025

Mariama Dryák-Vallies

The 2025 PSECCO Photo Contest entries were phenomenal. Thank you to each and every individual who submitted a photograph to the competition. The PSECCO team had an incredible (and incredibly difficult) time reviewing all the entries and voting on photographs that explored composition, originality, use of color, and artistry spectacularly.

In each category there were two or more photos that the team was divided between. With that as a context, I'll not keep you waiting on the results! The top photo and the person who took the photo is shared for each category, and honorable mentions are noted below.

Category Winners

Black and White

Photograph of a Weddell Seal on the snow, yawning, taken on the Antarctic Peninsula

Landscape

Photograph of a small, still pond as enormous icebergs loom in the background under a grey sky on Ilulissat Icefjord, Ilulissat, Greenland

A rocky outcrop covered in moss and grasses surrounds a small, still pond as enormous icebergs loom in the background under a grey sky. — *Photo by Kara Hartig. Kara is a postdoctoral researcher in Boulder, Colorado, studying Arctic clouds and an avid admirer of polar landscapes.*

People

Photograph of the view from below while abseiling into a crevasse on Ross Island, Antarctica

The view from below - Abseiling into a crevasse on Ross Island — *Photo by Madison Grace Farrant. Madison is a PhD Student researching how climate change impacts Antarctic and sub-Antarctic species.*

Animals

Photograph of a leopard seal on an iceberg in Chile

"The image captures a critical moment from our expedition. After hours of patrolling the freezing waters looking for animals, the team came across a female leopard seal resting on an iceberg. We were focused, pressured—piloting a drone, collecting data, and preparing to take a sample—but she was undisturbed, basking in the icy stillness. The contrast was clear: We were working hard, while she was hardly working."

Perspective

Photograph of scientists on an ice floe with an icebreaker in the background in East Antarctica

Honorable Mentions - in no particular order

Photograph of camp blending science and daily life—where weather instruments, an anemometer, and a clothesline all share the same rocky perch. Photo taken at Camp 10, Juneau Icefield, Alaska (USA); traditional lands of the Tlingit people.

Camp blends science and daily life—where weather instruments, an anemometer, and a clothesline all share the same rocky perch. — *Photo by Ellie Miller. Ellie Miller is a PhD student at Colorado School of Mines studying the impact of ice sheet evolution on ice-proximal hydrologic systems through the last deglaciation.*

Photograph of an Adelie penguin and their chick braving the snow. This image was taken at the Cape Bird penguin colony on Ross Island.

Photograph of a snow petrel flying above the sea in East Antarctica.

Photograph of the sceneric town of Kangaamiut, Greenland, being serviced by the Sarfaq Ittuk.

The sceneric town of Kangaamiut, Greenland, is serviced by the Sarfaq Ittuk. — *Photo by Clément Cherblanc. Clément Cherblanc is a French glaciology PhD student at the Danish Meteorological Institute, with a passion for snow, ice and climate processes.*

Photograph of a scientist ready to deploy an Argo-float in the Southern Ocean on the back deck of an icebreaker.