Viktor Lyagushkin’s ‘Martians and a Spaceship’: Official Cover Photo for the 2025 UN World Oceans Day Photo Competition

The United Nations has chosen Viktor Lyagushkin’s photograph “Martians and a Spaceship” as the cover photo for its 2025 Photo Competition for UN World Oceans Day.

The Photo Competition for UN World Oceans Day is an annual event that is free and open to the public. It offers photographers a unique opportunity to showcase the vast beauty of the ocean and highlight the promising potential that lies beneath its waves.

This year’s competition harnesses the power of the arts to broaden our perspectives and deepen our appreciation for our blue planet, inspiring action toward essential change.

The following four categories are now open for submissions:

1. Wonder: Sustaining What Sustains Us

2. Big and Small Underwater Faces

3. Underwater Seascapes

4. Above Water Seascapes

Winners will be announced on June 8th, UN World Oceans Day, which this year is celebrated in Nice. The event is hosted by the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea in partnership with Oceanic Global, and the results will be published on DPG (https://www.divephotoguide.com/) shortly afterward.

For more details about submissions, including category descriptions, contest rules, judges, and more, please click here.

The competition is coordinated by the United Nations Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, DPG, Oceanic Global, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO, and Nausicaá.

White Sea Bestiary Lecture in Tbilisi

Celebrating a birthday can take on an extraordinary twist, especially when one chooses to share their passions and experiences with others. On February 1, 2025, Bogdana Vashchenko and Viktor Lyagushkin captivated a group of foreign photographers with an engaging lecture about their enchanting White Sea Bestiary Project. This presentation was not just a showcase; it was a heartfelt journey through their most cherished and unforgettable moments spent amidst the breathtaking beauty of the White Sea. Their talk left the audience inspired and eager to explore the wonders of nature through the lens of art.

Happy birthday, Bogdana!

photo by Vladimir Pesnya

Exhibition “Magical World of the White Sea” in Moscow park “Green River”

Viktor Lyagushkin’s exhibition “Magical World of the White Sea” opened In Moscow park “Green River”. It will run until the beginning of April.

The exhibit presents 47 works, this is the most complete selection of underwater photographs of the White Sea.

Ice and Beasts in Divemaster Magazine

Two huge materials at once: about the world’s first art gallery under the ice, which opened on the White Sea on the basis of the touristic center “Arctic Circle” within the framework of our team’s project “Until the ice melts”.

And a second one is a long article about how the shooting for our project “White Sea Bestiary” took place: about creativity, mysticism and photography in the article by Bogdana Vashchenko for those who know German.

Well, the cover by Viktor Lyagushkin.

Under-ice gallery “Until the Ice Melts” in the German magazine GEO Saison

The goal of the “Until the Ice Melts” project, led by our Phototeam.pro team headed by photographer Viktor Lyagushkin, is to draw attention to the problem of climate change and the melting of the Arctic.

Here we have another recognition of the importance of the project: one more publication abroad, in the German magazine GEO Saison for October 2021, a note on the world’s first under-ice gallery “Until the Ice Melts”.

PhotoBookMarket 2021

Coronavirus restrictions have eased a little in Moscow, and our PHOTOTEAM.PRO team dared to participate in the annual PhotoBookMarket 2021, which was held at Winzavod on September 26-27, 2021.

Our new book “White Sea Bestiary” (the author of which is the writer and naturalist Bogdana Vashchenko) was greeted with a bang, both market guests and venerable photographers participating in the exhibition with their books were interested in it.

We brought to the exhibition a signal copy of the collector’s version of “Bestiary” for our fans to browse through.

I think that without false modesty, the Bestiary can be called the number one book of the event.

Underwater Demon Seeker

We are glad to tell you about one of our good friends and PHOTOTEAM.PRO member, artist Denis Lotarev, co-author of our book “White Sea Bestiary”. An article about Denis appeared on the Takie Dela media today with my (Bogdana Vashchenko’s) text and photographs by Viktor Lyagushkin.

What is it like to be an underwater artist, “from what rubbish grow, without knowing shame” masterpieces and ideas coming into a head of a creative person and much more.

You can read the piece here

Personal Exhibition in Moskwarium

A personal exhibition by Viktor Lyagushkin (Nikon Ambassador, National Geographic photographer, SUBAL Pro Team member and leader of our PHOTOTEAM.PRO) is taking place in the Moskvarium (Moscow, Russia) as part of the Gorizont ecological festival.

The exhibition titled “The White Sea: Man and Nature” presents photographs from the projects “Until the Ice Melts” and “White Sea Bestiary”. Bizarre Arctic animals coexist with humanoid demons. Thus Viktor shows the environmental problems of the northern seas.

The exhibition will run until July 4, 2021, admission is free.