The Israeli photographer who won the competition that limits Photoshop and AI manipul

Israeli landscape photographer Ilan Shacham has won first place in the “Abstract Landscape” category of the prestigious Natural Landscape Photography Awards for a striking image he captured at the Dead Sea. The competition emphasizes authenticity in photography, allowing only minimal editing—standing in contrast to the widespread use of AI and heavy digital manipulation in today’s photography world.

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"פנינים מלוחות", תמונת הנוף האבסטרקטי של השנה, Natural Landscape Photography Awards

Salty Pearls”, Abstract Landscape Photo of the Year, Natural Landscape Photography Awards

(Photo: Ilan Shacham)

“The Dead Sea is one of my favorite areas to photograph,” Ilan told Ynet. “I am always amazed by the variety of salt formations, which create an impressive range of shapes and textures. It is particularly rich material for anyone seeking to express the world in an abstract way, like a painting of nature.

“The photo was taken on a winter morning on an anonymous beach in the northern Dead Sea. After a long walk across difficult terrain, I reached the shoreline. The beach itself was made up of hardened salt surfaces, with an almost random lattice of ridges—raised salt lines protruding above the rest.

“In one area I discovered ‘salt pearls’ that had rolled between the ridges. In the early morning light, the low sun illuminated the ridges from within with golden light, creating a magnificent texture of spheres within glowing lines. I hurried to frame a portion of this natural creation in a way that would draw the viewer in and best convey the feeling of standing before this wonder.”

Shacham, who lives in Modi’in with his wife Sharon and their three children, never studied photography formally. He taught himself by using online resources, studying images he admired, analyzing them and trying to achieve similar results. He first came to photography by chance, while writing a monthly mountain biking column for Ofanayim magazine. He needed photos to illustrate the trails he described, so he bought a simple pocket camera. Before long, he realized he enjoyed photography no less than cycling—and that he was actually quite good at it.

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"טביעת הרגל של גודזילה", זוכה ב Merit Prize בתחרות הצילום העולמית של נשיונל ג'יאוגרפיק טרוולר 2011

‘Godzilla’s Footprint,’ winner of the Merit Prize in the 2011 National Geographic Traveler World Photography Competition

(Photo: Ilan Shacham)

Shacham is no stranger to international prizes. In 2011, he was among the winners of the National Geographic Traveler world photography competition, with an image of a fisherman at Palmahim beach.

“I went out one winter Friday afternoon to photograph at Palmahim beach, with two of my children,” he recalled. “We stepped onto a rocky platform slightly higher than sea level, where seawater poured in with the waves, and approached the spot where the rock shelf drops off into the sea. The sea was a little rough, so I left my kids a few meters behind me and stood at the edge to photograph the shelf and the waterfalls created by the receding waves. A six-second exposure beautifully blurred the water and emphasized the small falls tumbling back into the sea. I felt I was just warming up, and that soon the light of sunset would reach its peak—but then a huge wave swept over me and the kids.

“It was winter in Israel—mild, but still winter—so as a responsible father I had to abandon the shoot and take the kids home to dry off. I was very frustrated that I hadn’t managed to capture the scene at its most beautiful, but to my delight, at home I discovered that I had managed to take a good photo. Good enough for National Geographic.

“After the competition results were published, a French woman contacted me saying she and her fiancé wanted to come to this beach for their honeymoon, and she asked me for directions. How could I explain to her that it doesn’t look like that every day—or at every hour—and certainly not without a long camera exposure?”

Over the years, Shacham’s photographs have been published in various National Geographic magazines worldwide, in many Lonely Planet guidebooks, and in countless other magazines, newspapers, books and calendars.

In 2017, after receiving an honorable mention in the Nature’s Best Photography competition, one of his images was exhibited at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C., following a festive ceremony in the museum’s famous rotunda. The image, taken during a mountain bike trip in Slovenia, showed a rider on a knife-edge ridge with sheer drops on both sides.

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"על הסכין", הוצגה במשך שנה במוזיאון סמיתסוניאן בוושינגטון

‘On the Knife’ was exhibited for a year at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington

(Photo: Ilan Shacham)

“On that biking trip I decided to carry, along with my regular lenses, a fisheye lens. For days I hauled it up and down climbs without taking it out even once. On the fourth day we reached the ridge. The problem with photographing cycling, and extreme sports in general, is that slopes often look much gentler in photos than they feel in reality. I wanted to convey the full sensation of riding the knife-edge. So I pulled out the fisheye lens. This lens captures a very wide view, which compressed the ridge within the frame and conveyed exactly the feeling I wanted. In the end, I used that lens only once in a week of riding. But it was enough to capture a photo for the Smithsonian.”

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אילן שחם מקבל את הפרס במוזיאון הסמיתסוניאן בוושינגטון

Ilan Shacham receives the award at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington

(Photo: Larry Levin/NBP Awards 2017)

Shacham has also received recognition at the Natural Landscape Photography Awards before. In 2021, he earned an honorable mention for his work “Nature’s Clock,” which depicts a lone plant on a black Icelandic beach. Strong winds spun the plant in all directions, carving a perfect circle around it in the sand. With a long exposure, Shacham conveyed the sense of movement and hinted at the solution to the “mystery” of the circle around the plant.

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"השעון של הטבע", זוכה בציון לשבח בתחרות NLPA 2021

‘Nature’s Clock,’ which depicts a lone plant on a black Icelandic beach.

(Photo: Ilan Shacham)

His image “Moon Over Hod Akev,” a tribute to Ansel Adams’ iconic “Moonrise, Hernandez,” was selected as an editor’s choice in the PhotoNature #6 competition and exhibited at the Eretz Israel Museum.

“Taking this photo required meticulous planning,” Shacham said. “Timing-wise, it had to be on the evening when the full moon rose just before sunset, so that the setting sun on the opposite horizon would bathe the mountains in a delicate reddish hue. Location-wise, I wanted the moon to rise just to the left of Hod Akev’s peak to balance the image. I scouted the area near Sde Boker ahead of time to find the exact spot I would need to reach at the critical moment to capture the moon exactly where I wanted it in the frame.”

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"ירח מעל חוד עקב", בחירת העורכים בתמונת טבע

‘Moon Over Hod Akev’

(Photo: Ilan Shacham)

Another image paying homage to a famous artwork is “The Floating Island,” taken at Glencoe Loch in Scotland, in which a rock and plant appear to hover among clouds reflected in the lake’s waters. The piece was inspired by René Magritte’s famous painting “The Castle of the Pyrenees.”

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"האי המרחף", אגם גלנקו, סקוטלנד