Photographer & Storyteller of the Year 2025: David Scholes
David Scholes has just achieved something truly extraordinary: winning both our This is Reportage Photographer of the Year and our Storyteller of the Year titles for 2025. To take either award is incredibly difficult. To take both in the same year is almost unheard of — a rare combination of vision, timing, consistency and sheer documentary instinct at the very highest level.
With a remarkable 22 Awards – including 13 Story Awards – across the year, David sits deservedly at the top of our just-announced Top 100 Photographers in the World 2025 and Top 25 Storytellers lists. It’s hard enough to win one Award; to win twenty-two is a level of sustained, world-class storytelling very few photographers ever reach.
This also marks David’s fourth time being crowned our Storyteller of the Year, a record that speaks for itself. Story Awards are notoriously tough to win: 15–20 images, all from the same wedding, judged as a cohesive narrative. To excel at that format once is an achievement. To dominate it year after year is something else entirely — a testament to David’s ability not only to see moments, but to absorb an entire day and translate its truth into sequence after sequence of meaningful, unposed, human storytelling.
Below are all of David’s winning Awards from 2025, and you can discover more of his work on his website or his TiR profile. We’ve also had the pleasure of interviewing David on the Podcast.
