Winner of the First Annual Game Screenshot of the Year 2021 Prize is announced

Picle has announced its winner of the first annual Game Screenshot of the Year 2021 Prize. Awarding $200 to the gaming photographer umbrashots for her submission, Picle has featured her image, alongside eight shortlisted screenshots.

After receiving 140 entries, 904 votes from the Picle community determined umbrashots’ dramatic image of Jin Sakai on horseback to be the first place winner. This marks the first year of this prize has been hosted by Picle, a new platform that showcases virtual photography and gaming screenshots across its channels. Helping to increase photographers’ exposure, Picle’s community of visually engaged gamers plans to continue to offer prizes and awards in 2022.

Umbrashots’ winning image, “the strength we need is all around us,” was captured in Ghost of Tsushima, a Sucker Punch Productions game available on PlayStation.

"I’m grateful and proud to be a virtual photographer and I’m excited to see this new pesrspective on videogames become a new art form, The feedback from the community has been amazing and I’m so excited to be part of this."

Several other submissions were captured in Ghost of Tshushima, three of which by gamevnom, sigrun.vp, and silverb made it onto the shortlist alongside the winning image. Additional runners-up include anni3toth's image of Taro’s Mask from Kena: Bridge of Spirits, rachelcasper.vp’s figurative image from No Man’s Sky, and captivating portraits of Eivor from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla by both junos_wings and warriorqueenvp.

"I took over 100 shots since I began my adventure in virtual photography," says demonbrandt.vp's, the artist behind a shortlisted photograph taken in Battlefield 1.

The creativity and prolific photography exhibited by the artists positions Picle to become a hub of stunning imagery, a tight-knit internet community, and a much-needed platform to host this growing art form.

To see more from the winner, umbrashots, visit her Instagram account.