Hong Kong photographer Derry Ainsworth has received the Architecture Photography award of the Year at the European Photography Awards 2026 for Hong Kong From Above, a drone series that captures the city from a completely different angle, offering unique perspectives on the SAR.
Entered in the professional Architecture Photography – Drone category, the series looks beyond Hong Kong’s familiar street scenes and skyline views. Instead, Ainsworth points his camera directly down or across the city from the air, revealing patterns, contrasts and small details that are easy to miss from ground level.
Several unmistakably Hong Kong landmarks appear throughout the collection. One photograph shows IFC emerging dramatically through a layer of cloud, with only the upper section of the skyscraper clearly visible.
Another captures the famous Whampoa Boat in Hung Hom from directly above, surrounded by tightly packed residential towers and almost looking as though it had been washed ashore by a typhoon.
Ainsworth also photographs one of Hong Kong’s most recognisable architectural features: a large opening built into a residential complex in Repulse Bay. Such openings are commonly associated with the local feng shui belief that dragons should be able to travel freely from the mountains towards the water. From Ainsworth’s viewpoint, the opening becomes a frame for a ship passing across the harbour behind it, bringing together architecture, tradition and everyday life in a single image.
Other shots focus less on landmarks and more on the way Hong Kong is organised. Rows of almost identical residential buildings become repeating geometric shapes when seen from the sky but there are also quieter glimpses of life in the 852.
A public swimming pool becomes a huge rectangle of bright blue, with swimmers appearing as tiny figures between the lanes. Another photograph captures rows of homes immediately beside green ponds and vegetation, showing how quickly Hong Kong can shift from dense development to open landscape.
That contrast is one of the strongest elements of Hong Kong From Above. Concrete towers sit beside the sea, roads cut through tightly packed neighbourhoods and pockets of greenery appear just metres from housing estates.
Ainsworth’s background in architectural design can be seen in his attention to lines, symmetry and structure, but the series is not only about buildings. It also shows how people live within one of the world’s densest cities.
By looking at Hong Kong from above, the photographs highlight what makes the city so visually unique: its density, its relationship with nature, its architecture and the unexpected ways all of these elements exist side by side.
For more information about Derry Ainsworth and his work, visit https://www.derryainsworth.com/ or follow him on Instagram at @derryainsworth.
Header Image Credit: Derry Ainsworth