Vanuatu's 'barefoot volcanologist' stands at ash- and sulfur-spewing Mount Yasur in award-winning photograph

Elle Leontiev's image of Philip, a self-taught volcanologist, standing at the foot of Mount Yasur in Vanuatu, won the Open Competition of the Portraiture category of the Sony World Photography Awards 2026. (Image credit: Elle Leontiev, Australia, Winner, Open Competition, Portraiture, Sony World Photography Awards 2026)

A photograph of an amateur volcanologist standing barefoot on the lava fields of Vanuatu's Mount Yasur has won the Portraiture category of the Open competition of this year's Sony World Photography Awards. Fine art and documentary photographer Elle Leontiev captured the image of Philip, the "barefoot volcanologist" on Tanna, a remote Pacific island approximately 120 miles (190 kilometers) from the main island of Efate.

"It was actually tough conditions on the day. The volcano was spewing a lot of ash that day, a lot of sulfur," Leontiev told Live Science. "It was really hard just to breathe; I was struggling. It was really windy, and a lot of the ash and sulfur was just being blown straight at us. We actually got off the volcano because it was too dangerous to stay up there."