Last night we announced the winners of the Abbey Road Music Photography Awards 2026, delivered by DHL.
During an evening of celebration, held across the iconic Studios One and Two, hosted by the returning Lauren Laverne, the night recognised the winners and finalists of this year’s competition. Bringing serious energy to the night were Scottish indie / electronic / acid-house kings Kuleeangee, alongside future superstar Tom A. Smith, who both delivered explosive live sets which had the whole of Studio One on its feet.
The MPAs is our flagship music photography competition, celebrating the art of music photography, while elevating and empowering the talents behind the lens, as part of the studios’ mission to create opportunity, and spotlight creativity at all levels.
Over 24,500 images were submitted from across 42 different countries for this year’s awards. The open categories are Behind the Scenes, Portrait, Live Music, Underground Scenes, Music Moment of the Year, Emerging Photographer of the Year, and Festivals, celebrating the best images from 2025. This year’s guest category is 50 Years of Punk, marking 50 years since the underground movement reshaped music, fashion, and youth culture around the world, and celebrating photos from any year.
MUSIC MOMENT OF THE YEAR, supported by Outernet London, is the only category voted for by the public. For his image of an Oasis fan caught in the middle of supernova crowd, the winner is Joshua Halling. Halling captured this image during Oasis’ 2025 tour in Buenos Aires, which Noel Gallagher singled out as the best show of the entire run, telling talkSPORT “It’s one of those gigs that none of us will ever forget”. The award was presented by previous ICON winner Jill Furmanovsky, who has documented Oasis since 1994 and published the acclaimed Oasis: Trying to Find a Way Out of Nowhere with Noel Gallagher in October 2025.
Gabrielle Ravet wins the BEHIND THE SCENES category (supported by Abbey Road), with her photo of My Chemical Romance fans readying themselves for the first show of the Long Live The Black Parade tour in Seattle.
In LIVE MUSIC (supported by Hydro Flask), two-time winner Tom Pallant wins with his image of Yungblud and his bassist, Silke Blansjaar, engulfed in fog performing in Luxembourg.
Frances Carter wins the PORTRAIT category, capturing Billie Marten on horseback during her first trip to New Zealand.
For UNDERGROUND SCENES, AF Cortés takes home the prize for his audience shot at a secret KARTEL show, on the abandoned train tracks in Brooklyn.
Dara Petrova secures EMERGING PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR, supported by adidas, with their picture of Techno rave Laboratorium in Ukraine, a place where military personnel socialise and civilians relieve stress.
In the FESTIVALS category (supported by DHL), Giulia Spadafora wins for her shot of the audience at Glastonbury Festival, taken at the Stone Circle opening ceremony, as the festival is about to begin.
This year’s guest category 50 YEARS OF PUNK is won by Wayne Large, for his photo of members of various punk bands in 1979, taken in Castle Gardens Park, Leicester, which was a local meeting place for punks at that time.
In the JUDGES' CHOICE category, Angus Jenner wins for his image of Oasis, on the opening night of their reunion tour.
California native and New York City resident Roberta Bayley received this year’s ICON award. She is one of the main photographers to visually chronicle the early punk rock scene, capturing artists including Iggy Pop, The Ramones, Debbie Harry and Blondie, Richard Hell, The Sex Pistols, The Damned, The Clash, Squeeze, a reunited New York Dolls, and many many more. The award was collected by world-renowned portrait photographer Platon as Bayley was unable to attend the night. She sent a video message from NYC.
Legendary Japanese photographer Masayoshi Sukita received the LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD for 2026. Best known for his long-term 44-year collaboration with David Bowie, Sukita took the iconic cover shoot for Bowie’s Heroes album, released in 1977. He is also known for era-defining images of Iggy Pop, Marc Bolan, Joe Strummer, Yellow Magic Orchestra and David Sylvian. His award was presented by Nile Rodgers, who produced David Bowie’s biggest selling album Let’s Dance. Sukita sent a video message from his home in Japan to apologise for missing the night, saying “Konnichiwa, people in London! Thanks for the Lifetime Achievement award. I am truly honoured to receive this award. I will keep photographing as ever. Please enjoy my work and I hope for your kind support.”
Sally Davies, Managing Director of Abbey Road Studios says: “Last night’s Abbey Road Music Photography Awards was a wonderful celebration of the extraordinary talent, creativity and craft of music photography. The standard of work was exceptional, and it was inspiring to see such a rich mix of perspectives and voices from photographers across the globe.
Abbey Road has always been a place where music, creativity and culture come together, so it feels very special to have created a platform that celebrates the photographers who capture that world through their own unique lens. Over the past five years, the community has embraced the MPAs with such warmth, generosity and passion, so we’re incredibly grateful for that. The greatest music photography does so much more than document a moment - it captures something of the artist, the audience and the time we’re living in. These are the images that become part of our shared cultural memory, and it’s a privilege for Abbey Road to celebrate the people who create them.”
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The 2026 MPA trophies were designed by acclaimed British designer, photographer and artist Andy Vella, best known for his more than 40-year creative collaboration with The Cure, alongside work for Jeff Buckley, Mogwai, Pavement, Mick Rock and Iggy Pop, together with literary design for John Berger and Margaret Atwood.
For the MPA trophies, Vella employed his distinctive ‘daylighting’ process - allowing time to inscribe itself directly into light-sensitive matter. Extended exposures and time-lapse negatives create kinesthetic photographic traces of light, movement and duration, which are then transformed into the physical language of the trophies. The process brings analogue experimentation into dialogue with digital manipulation, turning photographic traces of time and movement into tangible objects that celebrate creative achievement.
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We're are also excited to share that Ethan Parker will be our new Photographer in Residence. Ethan is an award-winning documentary and editorial photographer based in London. He has a visual style rooted in documentary and street photography, focusing on capturing honest, candid moments of everyday life. Amongst his many successes, Ethan was named Event Photographer winner at the British Photography Awards 2025, also having his work exhibited nationwide, as part of Portrait of Britain 2026, in partnership with JCDecaux.
Launched in 2022, the Abbey Road Music Photography Awards was rapidly embraced by the photography community and has grown into a year-round, multi-layered platform for growth and opportunity. The awards now form the leading element of the Abbey Road Music Photography Accelerator, which encompasses events, exhibitions, workshops, learning resources and much more; all designed to champion and empower photography talent.
The Abbey Road Music Photography Accelerator continues to grow internationally, partnering with Auckland Festival of Photography and T3 International Photo Festival Tokyo on the 2026 Tokyo Music Photography Residency. The Kowhai Residency, founded by the two festivals, is now in its fourth year and will focus on music photography for the first time.
The Accelerator recognises the value of personal projects and the importance of giving photographers the time and space to pursue an idea in depth. This November, the recipient will have a month to immerse themselves in Japanese culture and Tokyo’s creative community, build relationships and develop an idea into a new body of work.
The 2026 recipient is New York-based documentary photographer Destiny Mata. For the past decade, Destiny has documented New York City’s punks of colour and underground music communities across the five boroughs, photographing musicians, organisers and the people who have built and shaped these scenes. Her work is grounded in community and the preservation of histories that are often overlooked or lost.
Destiny’s project will explore Tokyo’s underground and DIY music communities, with a particular focus on punk and independent music. Beginning with independent record shops, she will use documentary photography and oral history to trace the connections between organisers, musicians, artists and audiences. Drawing on her experience in New York and what she learns in Tokyo, her work will create a visual conversation between the two cities.