Red Bull Illume has earned its place as the world’s greatest adventure and action sports imagery contest. In November the winners of the Image Quest 2019 were crowned at a spectacular Winner Award Ceremony at LUMEN atop Plan de Corones in South Tyrol, Italy. The Museum of Mountain Photography will also host the first outdoor exhibit tour stop. The stand-alone exhibition will present the top 60 images of the Image Quest 2019 on 2x2m lightboxes in an amazing scenery at a height of 2,275m/7,464ft. above sea level. The opening of the exhibition coincided with the official start of the ski season at Plan de Corones on November 30 and will be open until December 15, 2019. After that, the images will be displayed in magical Brunico-Bruneck, Italy until January 6, 2020. 

The location is at least as stunning as the exhibited images themselves. The breathtaking LUMEN – Museum of Mountain Photography has an 1800m2 exhibition space and features the most amazing moments of mountain photography. Over four floors it shows the history of mountain photography, from its beginnings until today and gives well deserved credit to the photographers behind the pictures. 

Situated in the beautiful Pustertal Valley, Plan de Corones is considered by many to be the number one wintersports resort in South Tyrol, Italy and all those who enjoy culture and relaxation in beautiful surroundings. So, make your next ski trip extra special! Head to Plan de Corones for great snow and experience the 60 finalist images in front of LUMEN at 2,275m/7,464ft. The exhibition will be open daily from 8.30am until 4.30pm and is free to visit, the opening hours coincide with the opening hours of the gondola.

Following the stop at LUMEN, the exhibition will travel to Brunico-Bruneck, Italy, also known as the heart of the Pustertal Valley. The images will be illuminated at the town hall square after dark from December 19, 2019 until January 6, 2020. Visitors can get in the festive mood at the Bruneck Christmas market, and combine this with a unique look at the 60 finalists that were chosen by 50 esteemed judges out of 59,551 submissions, that make up this stunning experience.

These tour stops atop Plan de Corones and in Brunico-Bruneck, Italy are set to be an event like no other, so be sure to stop by!

See all the stops on our dedicated Exhibition Page!

The Red Bull Illume Image Quest has a new name in the overall winner circle: Ben Thouard! His underwater epic shot in the glassy clear waters of Tahiti was chosen by a panel of 50 esteemed judges as the winner. If perspective were ever needed at a time like this, Ben’s image is number 1 out of a phenomenal 59,551 submissions.

We are delighted to add Ben’s name to the list of overall winners of the world’s greatest adventure and action sports imagery contest. A list that includes iconic photographers Lorenz Holder, Chris Burkard and Fred Mortagne. His progression from edition to edition has seen him rise from semi-finalist in 2013, to finalist in 2016 and now overall winner in 2019!

Every image tells a story, and here’s Ben’s story behind the shot:

“I‘ve dedicated the last few years to shooting underwater, looking for new angles and a new way to shoot surfing and waves. Shooting surfing from underwater is a whole new world and I love it! 

“Tahiti has some of the clearest water in the world so it was easy for me to take advantage of it and explore it as much as I could. 

“This photo was shot during a freesurf session right before the WCT event in Teahupo‘o. This is Ace Buchan kicking out from the barrel through the wave, a technique to escape a close-out wave. 

“Luckily I was right below, breathless with my waterhousing waiting for this moment and I was able to capture the whole sequence of it; this frame from the beginning of the sequence is the most powerful one because of the water around his face and body.”

As overall winner, Ben was selected from the 11 category winners, meaning he will take home the category winning prizes from Red Bull Illume Partners Sony, SanDisk, Skylum and COOPH - PLUS a Sony a9 camera with a 24-70mm f2.8 lens from the G-Master range. SanDisk will also take him on a shooting experience the SanDisk Extreme Team!

That’s not all, his image, along with the other of the 60 finalist images, will now be illuminated on 2x2m lightboxes at the Red Bull Illume Global Outdoor Exhibit Tour which begins tonight at LUMEN! 

All of the finalists, as well as the rest of the Top 260 images, are also published in the Red Bull Illume 2019 Limited Edition Photobook, which is available to order right now!

Once again, a huge thank you goes out to our partners Sony, SanDisk, Skylum, COOPH, Salewa, Petzl and Sunnybag for a memorable event and an amazing Image Quest!

But, most of all thanks to every photographer and content creator out there that submitted to the contest!

Our partners at SanDisk are experts in making photography storage solutions ready to deal with the toughest of conditions, that’s why they present the SanDisk Extreme Award to Philip Platzer!

Here’s the story of the image:

“I took the photo for Red Bull during the V-Max Project at the Atacama Desert in Chile, in 2016. The highspeed mountainbiker Markus Stöckl tried to beat the world record in speed with a serial MTB – which was a success, he reached 167.6 km/h. After I did a few classic close-up shots and pans, I wanted to show the whole scenery in one shot. The problem was I could not go close enough to do it with a wide-angle lens and with a longer focal length I didn’t get the view in the frame.

”The solution was to do a panorama shot. After I found my position, I did multiple photos in portrait format on 35mm before Max did his run. When Max was riding I did the sequence of him with the same focal length and perspective. No tripod was required.

“To get the final result I had to do some extra work in photoshop: First of all I stitched the panorama, in the end it was made out of six single shots. After this I had to add the sequence, which was quite an issue because of the stitching. Everything was slightly distorted and it took some time to fit the 44 shots of Max back into the scenery.”

You can follow the Winner Award Ceremony live here!

The Dolomite based outdoor gear, clothing and shoes company Salewa, a partner of the Red Bull Illume Winner Award Ceremony, definitely has the necessary experience and knowledge to choose the Best Mountain Sports Image from the thousands of mountain sports submissions to the Image Quest 2019.

They chose Kamil Sustiak! Here is the info about the winning shot:

“We woke up and the first thought that came to my mind was that this morning was going to be special. I always say that as it makes snoozing the early morning alarm way harder. Little did I know that the nature had already started working on its magic tricks. We arrived to the line surrounded by fog so thick that we could almost not see each other. An hour passed and we could only sense the sunrise that was supposed to make this morning so special.

“I thought, well not today mate, happened before, will happen again … the world is not turning around your camera to make you happy every time you press the shutter. I was ready to bail when all of a sudden the fog dropped just a tiny bit down into the valley and showed us what was actually going on around us. This spectacular scenery lasted for about an hour before the clouds underneath us disappeared and the world turned normal again.”

Follow the Winner Award Ceremony live!

Take the Red Bull Sky Dive Team, two hot air balloons and a giant swing and what do you get? That’s right, it’s the winner of the Wings category!

Philip Platzer’s image is as joyful as it is exciting, and he told us all about it:

“Together with the Red Bull Skydive Team, I did this crazy Project called “Megaswing“ back in 2016. After my assignment I already knew this had to be a tricky one: Two Hot Air Balloons, one with a long rope attached and the other one to jump out with the swing, and of course the Skydiver with his parachute.

“After the first couple of jumps I realized that I wouldn’t get the perfect shot by simply shooting from the inside of the basket they were jumping out of. Lucky me, I had my monopod in the car as well as a pair of radio-triggers. My solution to get the right angle was to hold the camera, that I had attached to my monopod, as deep under the basket and just hope to get the perfect framing.

“Another thing, I asked the athlete Marco Fürst to turn a little bit towards my direction to avoid getting an ass-shot and to get this playful mood in the image. In the end it was the very last try which gave us the moneyshot.”

Congratulations to the other finalists; Pablo Jiménez, Martin Golob, Lachie Carracher, Marcelo Maragni and Jairo Díaz Dévora.

Head over to our Facebook live stream to see the overall winner announced!

When we introduced the RAW category, the goal was to take photographers back to the fundamentals of photography, with composition, exposure and lighting all done in front of the lens. We knew we would see some expert creativity, but nothing quite as insane as this!

That’s right, the winner of the RAW category is Noah Wetzel:

“After weeks of preparation and creative conception, I loaded my Subaru and headed north to Wyoming for the Total Solar Eclipse in August of 2017. Arriving a couple days before the eclipse, I linked up with athletes Chris Brule, Evan Grott, and Blake Sommer. The imagery goal was to capture the Eclipse and showcase mountain biking utilizing an in-camera double exposure – a very complex process.

“The morning of, we loaded our packs well before sunrise with light stands, powerful flashes, extra camera gear, and two magnum bottles of champagne to celebrate. After capturing the first image successfully during two minutes of totality, all we had to do was endure the midday sun, waiting for twilight and the attempt at the second frame.

”Unfortunately, I was unaware I had damaged the hot shoe connection on my camera four weeks prior while shooting fly fishing, preventing me from triggering my flashes.

“Our only option required athlete Chris Brule to hit the feature in near darkness at 9pm, allowing me to set the camera to a 2.5 second exposure, manually firing the flashes and freezing Chris mid-air. Nearly escaping complete failure, we hiked out in darkness while sipping on champagne, truly in awe of the total solar eclipse and thankful we were able to capture something special.”

Congrats also to the other four finalists; Jan Kasl, Christian Gisi, Michael Clark and Daniel Bernstål!

Tune in to the Winner Award Ceremony live to see the remaining winners announced!

The Playground category showcases not only the athlete, but the landscapes, locations, platforms and environments in which they play. The reputation of Lorenz Holder as one of the greatest ever location scouts continues with this unique image taken at the Ouse Valley Viaduct, that would look equally as good hung in a gallery as it would on the cover of a skateboard magazine!

“The Ouse Valley Viaduct is pretty cool old railway bridge in the South of England. When you approach it from the side, you can‘t really see the secret this bridge has to offer, but once you get underneath of one of the arches you can‘t believe your eyes. You are caught in a place that could easily be in the movie Inception. The arches create a very surreal visual effect – when you are taking a picture, you don‘t understand if you are looking down into something or at least you get very confused about what you‘re actually seeing. I was blown away by this fact, but also blown away that this looked like a pretty good spot for skateboarding.

“When I showed Vladic an image of the viaduct, he was on fire to try it out. To be honest it was super hard to ride and Vladic‘s quote that got stuck in my mind was: “This is so hard, when my brain is going down in the transition, my body is already going up again – this will be difficult to get something done here.“ A couple of hours later, when his brain and body came together, he landed this kickflip while the sun was just at the perfect angle as well.”

Lorenz beat other finalists Chris Tedesco, Kamil Sustiak, Geoff Coombs, Matt Georges and Andrius Aleksandravičius to win his second category of the night!

Follow all the action live!

Congratulations to Rupert Walker and the team at Revel co., who mastered the challenge set by the Moving Image category and in one take created a winning sequence that is dynamic and action packed. Well worthy of being the first ever champion of this brand-new category!

Here’s the story behind the video:

“This shot features Brandon Semenuk and Ryan Howard riding down a custom-built slalom line built and designed by Revel Co. The idea for the shot was to have Brandon Semenuk start out solo in the shot, and have Ryan Howard appear in frame and then exit, doing this a couple times during the shot.

“It was particularly challenging because it required extreme precision from the FPV drone pilot, Jonny Durst, and during this shoot we experienced very heavy rains, which caused the track to be nearly unrideable. From the moisture the track was riding much slower than anticipated and caused the athletes to struggle at performing their best. The dig crew was all hands-on deck with tiger torches and shovels to dry up any wet spots and dig out any soft spots. With hard work from all, a solid shot plan, and great coordination between the drone pilot and the athletes, the shot was accomplished.”

Huge congrats also to the other four finalists; Ben Thouard, Stu Gibson, Maxime Moulin and Joey Schusler!

As we’re on the subject of vide, the Winner Award Ceremony is being stream live right now – check it out!

If you go down into the woods today you’ll never believe your eyes. That’s right, it’s two-time overall winner of Red Bull Illume Lorenz Holder teaming up with Senad Grosic again to make another incredible image!

Lorenz goes back-to-back adding the Masterpiece by EyeEm category crown in 2019 to his victory in the Masterpiece category back in 2016! Here’s how the image was made:

“The first time I saw this location was when I was watching Game of Thrones and I was blown away by the pure magic this road generated in me. First, I thought that it‘s of course a CGI composition, but after a little research I found out that this place is actually real and located in Northern Ireland. A year later I was actually standing there with Senad Grosic and trying to get a bunny-hop-tailwhip on camera.

“It was early in the morning with the first sun rays hitting the road and we managed to get a pretty cool shot, but somehow I knew that there was pure potential in the spot. So, we decided to stay a couple days longer and waited for some kind of rain, fog or other particles in the air, so I could use one flash from behind and create a white background to make Senad stand out a bit more and get the focus a bit more on the action. The rain came on our last day and I still remember the goose-bumps I had when I saw the image appearing on the screen of the camera. That‘s when I felt the same magical feeling I got when I watched Game of Thrones for the first time.”

Big shout-out to the other finalists: Kevin Molano, Morgan Maassen, Daniel Rönnbäck, Robin Pearson and Jeffrey Kiefer!

Find out if Lorenz will be the overall winner again! Follow the Winner Award Ceremony live!

When you think of a great photograph, it’s often one that allows you to reflect on a memory, a location or a certain feeling. The Lifestyle category takes us behind the scenes, away from the action and lets us, as viewers in on these moments.

The winner of the category is Alexander Wick and here his story behind the shot!

“Together with my boys Phil and Chris I went on a US West-Coast climbing trip. Obviously Yosemite is a must and so we tested our very humble European crack climbing skills right away on El Capitan‘s Salathé Wall. A climb I‘ve been dreaming of for quite a while.

“The first Ascent of this line was a master piece way ahead of its time. Climber and photographer Tom Frost was part of the three-man team back then. His photography of the same climb is just breathtaking. The picture of Royal Robbins napping on a rock atop El Cap Spire with loads of exposure is one of my favorites, so of course I planned on getting a tribute shot to the old masters once we reached the spot. As we got stuck behind another climbing party just up on El Cap spire I used the moment, aided my way up the next pitch and took the shot as the boys and our new friend Luke actually took a nap.

“No old hemp ropes and linen haul bags like in 1961 but modern nylon and Dyneema this time. No uncharted terrain but a well-known and established route. Having a rest amidst a sea of granite: probably almost as amazing as back in the days.”

In this insightful category, Alexander beat out fellow finalists Tyrone Bradley, Nicolás Pina Calvin, Denis Klero, Andrew Miller and Kohei Ueno to take the crown.

See if is image will be the overall winner! Follow the Winner Award Ceremony live!