At first glance, it looks like fireworks from another planet — thin blue filaments bursting upward, each tipped with light, while dark shapes hang behind them in the blackness.
Look again, and the scale flips. Those glowing threads are only a few millimetres tall. The shapes are sleeping bats. And the tiny forest in the foreground is growing on bat droppings.
That is Hidden Worlds, by Hungarian photographer Imre Potyó, overall winner of the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2026, presented by the German Society for Nature Photography (GDT). It is a historic first: in the competition's 26-year history, the overall title has never before gone to an image from the Plants and Fungi category.
The jury, in Tom Gilks' words, felt it instantly:
“Before we understand what we are looking at, we are drawn in by light.”
Potyó made the image in a disused mine tunnel in Hungary's Börzsöny Mountains, beneath hibernating lesser horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus hipposideros). He has photographed hibernating bats there for 13 years, in restricted-access tunnels, and this time he was there during a controlled bat count, working without disturbing the animals. Over time, the bats' droppings build into a dark layer of guano on the tunnel floor — and on it, something small finds a living.
"And this is where the real wonder begins: in the beam of a torch, a whitish coating can be seen on the guano - a small pin mould thriving in this unusual habitat."
With a macro lens — a Nikon D7200, Tamron 2.0/60 mm, ISO 320, tripod and LED lamp — he placed that pin mould sharp in the foreground, using a long exposure with a focus shift, while the bats softened into shapes behind it. Bats, fungi and microorganisms, the jury noted, are bound in one unseen web that quietly sustains life — a web now disappearing, in places, before it has even been properly documented.
It is the kind of picture only Potyó was likely to make. Born in 1982, an environmental researcher turned educator for the Danube-Ipoly National Park, he previously studied Danube fish, birds, amphibians and mayflies, was named Hungary's Nature Photographer of the Year in 2018 and 2020, and has won the Grand Prix of Hungarian Nature Photography twice, in 2022 and 2024. His thing, for 18 years, has been hunting moments almost nobody else notices.
And his win topped a record year: more than 26,000 entries from 1,239 photographers.
The rest of the competition, in brief:
Birds — breeding, migration, the dramatic fight for food, bizarre shapes, magnificent colours and elegance on the wing.
Mammals — from European hamsters to elephants and blue whales to bats, showing character, individuality and behaviour in their natural habitat.
Other Animals — reptiles, amphibians, insects, spiders and invertebrates, and the often spectacular character and beauty most of us overlook.
Plants and Fungi — the beauty and adaptability of plants and fungi, and photographs that play with light and composition; fittingly, the category that finally produced the overall winner.
Landscapes — from the cultural landscape on our doorstep to remote regions worldwide, shaped by weather and the formative power of wind and water.
Underwater World — a glimpse into the realm covering 71% of Earth's surface, and the abundance of life in oceans, rivers and lakes.
Nature's Studio — colour and shape beyond mere representation, where photographers express their own point of view and love of experimentation.
Foreword — patron Sabine Riewenherm, President of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, wrote: "Photographs of plants, animals, fungi and landscapes all tell stories – stories that fascinate, move, unsettle, or even shock: the stories that only life, that only nature, can write."
Jury's comment — the strongest pictures, the jury said, were not those that overwhelmed at first glance, but those that revealed themselves gradually — a perfect description of a few millimetres of mould, glowing in the dark, that no one who sees it will now forget.
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