A 16-year-old Hungarian boy is the world’s best macro photographer

He became the best young bird photographer last year already, and now he won the award for the world’s best macro photographer. Macro photography is extreme close-up photography, usually of small subjects and living organisms like insects, in which the size of the subject in the photograph is greater than life-size.

According to Szeretlek Magyarorszag, the Close-up Photographer of the Year contest was organised for the second time this year, and Hungarians could win in many categories. The competition was not easy since there were many good photos in the finale. The organisers published the finale results on September 24 on the website of the event. 

The absolute winner of the contest was the French Galice Hoarau with

a photo taken of an eel larva.

Interestingly, it is hard to say what exactly we see on the photos of the contest since they show small details of our world which are hard to notice in our everyday life. Here is one that is easy to identify:

Tamás Koncz-Bisztricz, who is now 16 years old, won the title of Young Close-up Photographer of the Year. This is not the first time he won an international or Hungarian photo contest. In 2020, he won with a photo titled “Little Ball” (Kis gömböc) showing a Sminthuridae. 

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Mr Koncz-Bisztricz told Szeretlek Magyarorszag that

he started to take macro photos in December after visiting Csaba Daróczi,

a famous Hungarian nature photographer. He likes to take photos of everything in nature, so it did not take long to convince himself to continue his career in the world of macro photography. Interestingly, he took the award-winning photo in the morning of January 1 after he arrived home from the New Year’s Eve party. He noticed before that there are many tiny wonders on the field which one can only capture in the morning when the weather is still cold. 

Mr Koncz-Bisztricz likes this segment of macro photography since it is relatively easy to take surprising but at the same time artistic photos. The Close-up Photographer of the Year  is a relatively new contest started by a British couple, Tracy and Daniel Calder, last year.

The jury awarded two more Hungarians, Csaba Daróczi and Bori Papp. Interestingly, Daniel Calder invited Mr Daróczi to join the contest after he found his beautiful photos on Instagram. Finally, he got second place in the animal category with a photo taken of a spider in a swamp. He became the ‘Nature Photographer of the Year’ in 2019.

Bence Máté and Bori Papp also took part in the finale with a pelican and a fly. Amazingly, Ms Papp is only 12 years old but has been taking photos for four years.