Modern Wonders of the World Winner Photos

Earlier this year, we hosted a March Madness photo contest, inspired by the bracket-style competition that happens on the basketball court. To give it a proper spin, we culled Instagram for some of the most beautiful travel photos we could find and put them head-to-head in a public-facing competition where you voted for your favorite photos. We kicked things off with 32 photos, cutting the number in half every few days until we came upon one winner. The photographer that came out on top is Altug Galip—known as @kyrenian to his Instagram community of more than 1.3 million people. The Cyprus-based photographer has been taking photos for 20 years and wowed us (and the rest of the voters) with his shot of Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, France (the first photo in the compilation).

Galip is a seasoned traveler, but he does have one vacation location that will forever hold a spot in his heart and memory card: Norway. "I was able to take photos 24 hours [a day]. I have been there twice to capture the Aurora Borealis." In fact, he has this very location to that for his favorite photo to date: "The photos of Aurora Borealis in Lofoten Islands, Norway and Melissa Lake are very important to me. I have won many awards with the photo of Aurora Borealis and one of the photos of Melissa Lake is the most shared photo on instagram." But when it comes to his favorite city, you'll have to travel some 38 hours away to Paris. "I have been to many cities in the world, but if I had to choose one, it would definitely be Paris." What's next on his itinerary? "This month, I am going to visit Romania, the Greek Islands, and the southern part of Turkey."

To celebrate his win, we wanted to share more of his inspiring photography with all of you. Ahead, you'll find 19 shots from around the world—stunning scenes from Turkey, Bali, France, Italy, and more—from our March Madness: Modern Wonders of the World photo content winner.

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