ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Filip Hrebenda is a professional landscape photographer based in Slovakia. Since childhood, he has been fascinated by mountains and wilderness. Growing up in a small town in the heart of Slovakia, he was close to the high mountains – the High Tatras. And it was precisely here that his passion for hiking and photography began. From a young age, he sought out landscapes that were not common. Therefore, he often ventured into the mountains in extreme conditions. It was his passion for mountains and nature that eventually led him to photography.
The message of his work is to convey the atmosphere of the photographed place and the feelings he had while photographing in challenging conditions to the viewers, thus allowing them to perceive the beauty of the wildest places in the world, which are becoming increasingly rare on Earth. Filip has received many prestigious awards for his art. His work has been published in the most important media in the world such as CNN, BBC, National Geographic, Forbes, The Guardian and others. His photographs have also been exhibited worldwide. Since 2018, Filip has been organizing photo expeditions and workshops, where he pass on his knowledge to other photographers.
Filip's passion for photography began years ago in the Slovak mountains, where he grew up. He has always been fascinated by mountains and has spent a lot of time in them since he was a child. He liked to go to the peaks to watch the sunrises and sunsets. After a while, he got his first camera, with which he tried to capture the beautiful moments he experienced during the climbs. He was so "hooked" on photography that he could not imagine a week without spending some time outside of civilization with a camera in his hand. He often just sat in the mountains and watched how the light behaves, trying to perceive the colors and atmosphere of each place. He put in a lot of effort and had a strong desire to improve. Therefore, the first successes did not take long. After a year and a half of photography, some of his photos were successful in local and international competitions. Some made it to the final selections, others even placed in the top three. This continued and so in 2018 Filip decided to start making a living only by photographing the landscape and nature.
Thanks to his unique compositions and memorable color rendering, he created a distinctive style that began to be recognized by authors around the world. In addition to photography itself, Filip's hobby was discovering new places - locations that are difficult to get to. He was attracted by areas outside civilization, polar regions, but also active volcanoes. His style gradually evolved into the form we know today. With his photographs, he tries not only to show the viewers interesting locations, but also to convey the atmosphere of the photographed place. He wants to show them the beauty that is hidden even in the harshest areas of the world and in the most extreme natural conditions. Over the years, Filip has won a number of prestigious awards for this ability and has become a prominent personality in the world of landscape photography.
An important part of a photographer's life is not only taking photos but also presenting their works. Over the years, Filip has exhibited his works in many places including Budapest, Tokyo, Prague, New York, Moscow, Oslo, London, Taipei, and Bangkok. In addition to classic exhibitions, which mostly followed awards in various parts of the world, Filip put together a special solo exhibition with the theme "Elements of our Earth," which also included several lectures. This exhibition found a place in his native Slovakia, as well as at the largest photography festival Xposure in Dubai, where he presented it to tens of thousands of visitors, including the royal family. The message of this exhibition was to show the beauty of individual earth elements and to point out the fact that people will only protect what they love. And they will only love what they know is beautiful and necessary for themselves.
In addition to exhibitions, Filip has also presented his works in the most renowned media and magazines in the world, including National Geographic, BBC, Forbes, CNN, Daily Mail, The Washington Post, and The Guardian. In 2023, he created his own book project "Through the Eyes of a Photographer," in which he describes countries he likes to return to from a photographer's perspective. To date, he has published 3 volumes of this book series, in which he gradually focused on photogenic locations in Slovakia, Iceland, and the Dolomites.
After various international successes, he also began judging in several world competitions, including one of the most prestigious awards for visual creators - HIPA, which is held annually in Dubai.
In 2018, Filip decided to start sharing his experience with other photographers, so he opened his first group photo workshop in the High Tatras in Slovakia. It was a great success, and he became increasingly involved in this activity. Gradually, he opened workshops and expeditions for clients not only in Slovakia but also in Italy, Iceland, Norway, and Saudi Arabia. Since his teaching beginnings in 2018, he has led more than 90 group workshops and expeditions. This resulted in a new project, "Landscape Nomads," which he started with his wife Miriam. Through this platform, they offer clients from all over the world exclusive photo expeditions, often to the most remote parts of the world. In the coming years, they plan to visit several locations that no one has ventured to before.
Filip is known for sharing all his know-how in his workshops, which is not always a given in the field of photo workshops. That's why many clients have grown fond of his expeditions and return to them regularly every year. Statistically, up to 74% of clients return to the workshops regularly, which is why he wants to continue in this activity.
YOU COULD SEE FILIP'S WORK IN:
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I. PHOTOGRAPHER AND TRAVELER
II. ARTIST, JUROR AND WRITER
III. PHOTO TOURS LEADER
IV. AWARDS
Over the years, he has received numerous international awards for his work. For example, the project "Born of Fire," which captured the birth of a new Icelandic volcano, won first place in 2021 in four different major cities around the world (Budapest, Tokyo, Moscow, and New York), an achievement no similar project has accomplished so far. In the same year, he was named Photographer of the Year in the "Aurora" category, thanks to which his photograph "In the embrace of a green lady" is exhibited at the National Museum in London. In 2023, he was named Photographer of the Year in the "Nature Photography" category by the Federation of European Professional Photographers (FEP).
Less than a year later, he received a prestigious award for one of his night photographs at the world's largest photography festival, "Xposure," held annually in Dubai. Another major success came in 2025, when he took first place in the "Landscape" category at the world's largest photo competition - Cewe photo awards, among over 650,000 photographs. Just a few months later, he won first place with his photograph "Thunderstorm" in another global competition, the Viewsonic Colorpro awards.
Since 2020, Filip has been a member of the Association of Professional Photographers of Slovakia (APFSR), where he was awarded the title "Qualified European Photographer" (QEP).
At the world's largest photography competition, Filip's photo "Into the Cave" won first place in the Landscape category. Nearly 650,000 photos from around the world were submitted to this competition. The award ceremony took place in September 2025 in Prague.
CEWE PHOTO AWARD 2025
(1. Place - Landscape)
At the most prestigious and largest photography festival in the world, which is held annually in Sharjah (United Arab Emirates), Sultan bin Ahmed al Quasimi, a member of the royal family, presented Filip with an award for outstanding work in the field of night landscape photography.
XPOSURE INTERNATIONAL AWARDS 2023
In the global competition Sony World Photography Awards, Filip won the National Award in 2022 with the photograph "Born of Fire." Subsequently, in 2023, one of his photographs won the Regional Award for the Central Europe region.
SONY WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS 2022, 2023 (National)
The photograph "Born of fire" was successful in the IPA (International Photography Awards), which is held annually in New York. It won first place in the Nature - Landscape (Professional) category. Thousands of photographs from around the world were entered into the competition.
INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS 2022 (IPA)
In the prestigious awards ceremony for the best photographs of the year in Tokyo, the photo "Born of Fire" placed first in the Nature - Professional category and also in the Landscape category. Based on this, it was exhibited in a gallery in Tokyo.
TOKYO INT. FOTO AWARDS
2021 (TIFA)
At the worldwide competition, which is organized annually by the company Viewsonic for photographers, cameramen, and digital artists, Filip won first place in the Photography category. Tens of thousands of photos from all over the world were submitted to the competition.
COLORPRO AWARDS 2025
(1. Place - Photography)
In a competition intended for professional European photographers, Filip managed to secure first place with a series of photographs from 2022, earning his work the title of FEP Golden Camera, which in the world of professional photography means "European Photographer of the Year in the Landscape genre".
FEP AWARDS 2023
(GOLDEN CAMERA)
The photograph "In the embrace of a green lady" also achieved success, taking first place in the Aurora category at the Nightscape Photographer Awards in London. The photograph was subsequently exhibited at the London "National Maritime Museum".
ASTRONOMY PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR 2022
At the prestigious awards ceremony for the best photographs of the year in Moscow, the photo "Born of fire" placed first in the Nature - Professional category and also in the Landscape category. This made Filip the first photographer to win first place in all 4 cities where IPA awards are presented in one year.
MOSCOW INT. FOTO AWARDS 2022 (MIFA)
At the prestigious awards ceremony for the best photographs of the year in Budapest, the photo "Born of fire" took first place in the Nature - Professional category and also in the Landscape category. Based on this, it was exhibited in a gallery in Budapest.
BUDAPEST INT. FOTO AWARDS 2021 (BIFA)
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