Vanessa Haines, Katla (LANDSCAPE 2026)

Katla is one of the most active and feared subglacial volcanos, the ice cave is also one of the most visited attractions Iceland has, the beauty of going into an ice cave bit also a active volcano is thrilling and amazing. While the experience was incredible the cave its self was a slight let down, believing it to be bigger and being able to spend more time exploring the cave it was a quick visit, but the landscape outside the cave was truly incredible, seeing all the black ash on top of this glacier as we are hiking across it, you could mistake it for normal ground, but hiding beneath is truly something otherworldly, I believe this photo captures that. the contrast from the blue hued ice and the black ash caked on layer after layer, seeing how thick and stack the contrast was it emphasised how many times this volcano has erupted, that it covers the entire glacier you have a sometimes you can see or tell that what you standing on is a glacier hundreds of years old maybe even thousands. It was truly a pleasure to visit such an amazing landscape

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.