PRESS RELEASE — 30 JUNE 2026
For immediate release
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ANNA LINMANS WINS URBAN PHOTO RACE BRUSSELS 2026
First UPR edition in Belgium concludes with a Dutch sweep across
overall and per-theme awards.

BRUSSELS, 30 JUNE 2026 — Dutch photographer Anna Linmans has won
Best Photographer at Urban Photo Race Brussels 2026, the fifteenth
edition of the European photography race and the first staged in
Belgium. The race ran on 6 June 2026, starting from Parc du
Cinquantenaire, with over a hundred photographers spending eight
hours navigating Brussels in response to four themes revealed during
the day: Trying too hard, In motion, Out of place, and Nothing is
what it seems.

Linmans took the top prize with a portfolio centred on the Brussels
metro · "beautiful, ugly and a bit scary, all at the same time" ·
also winning Best Theme #1 (Trying too hard) and Best Theme #4
(Nothing is what it seems), along with Kevin Scarlett's Jury Favourite
and Special Recognition from Lomography. She receives €250 cash, a
Sigma 35mm F1.4 DG II Art lens, and an annual Photofacts Academy
membership.

Bulgarian photographer Elitsa Andreeva finished second with a body of
work reducing the cityscape to abstract painting, taking €120 plus an
Albelli voucher. Karen Velleman placed third with €75 plus a Wisper
Street Photography workshop · drawn, as she put it, to "fleeting
moments, details that reveal something and fragments."

Esther Gerritsen claimed Best Theme #2 (In motion) with a series of
three frames showing the city itself in motion · a bollard's chalk
halo, a serpentine concrete bench, a spiral playground slide · without
a single moving subject. Her work also earned Jury Favourites from
both Daniel Rachamim and Jeffrey De Keyser. Siebe Jacxsens won Best
Theme #3 (Out of place).

The Brussels edition introduced an on-the-day camera partnership with
Sigma · five Sigma BF mirrorless bodies were available for racers to
test in the field, a first for UPR. The jury was led by Brussels-based
street photographer Kevin Scarlett, with Daniel Rachamim and Belgian
photographer Jeffrey De Keyser.

The next edition runs in Amsterdam on 12 September 2026. Tickets are
on sale now via urbanphotorace.com.

— ENDS —

About Urban Photo Race
Urban Photo Race (UPR) is a one-day photography race held in European
cities since 2011. Eight hours, four themes, twelve photographs.
Fifteen editions to date.

Press contact:  info@urbanphotorace.com
Press kit:      urbanphotorace.com/press
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