Landscape, night, wildlife and portrait photographer.
Murcia, Spain.
2013. An iPhone 5s and a vacant lot. I would wander in there looking for good compositions among broken bottles and insects. I spent four years like that: learning to compose and to get a good photo out of places that seemed impossible.
I trade the phone for a DSLR and make my first trip to Iceland. There I photograph my first auroras, and I have been chasing the light ever since.
First place in night photography at the 6th 35AWARDS with Rifugio Locatelli, in the Dolomites. Gold medal at the Trierenberg Super Circuit with “The Guardian of the Stars”.
Amazing Cloud Award at the International Landscape Photographer of the Year with “The Old Tree”, in the Namib Desert.
Open Photographer of the Year at the Epson International Pano Awards and winner of Open Nature / Landscape with “The Bridge”. First in night photography at the 35AWARDS once again. Panoramic World is exhibited in Valencia and Murcia.
Bronze medal in Nature / Landscape at the World Photographic Cup with Team Spain. Judge at the Epson International Pano Awards. Panoramic World arrives at the Casa de Cultura in Calp.
I publish “Where the world still begins”, my vision of Iceland. Seventh in the world at the World Photographic Cup.
Silver medal in Nature / Landscape at the World Photographic Cup with Team Spain. And the light, still, waiting to be found.
From design to light.
I am José D. Riquelme, a photographer from Murcia specializing in landscape and night photography. I come from graphic design and printing, and from that trade I brought along an obsession: caring for every tone until the photo reaches paper.
I started in 2013 with an iPhone 5s in a vacant lot, looking for compositions among broken bottles and insects. For four years I learned to compose and to get a good photo out of places that seemed impossible. In 2017 I traded the phone for a DSLR and traveled to Iceland for the first time, where I photographed my first auroras. I have gone back many times: “The Eye of the Night”, at Vestrahorn, came after seven trips.
What moves me most is the night: the Milky Way, the auroras and the landscapes that only appear when the lights go out. Many of my images are panoramas, so that whoever looks at them feels they are inside.
That work has been rewarded in the major international competitions. I was Open Photographer of the Year at the 2023 Epson International Pano Awards and, twice, the best night landscape photographer in the world at the 35AWARDS. With Team Spain I won bronze in 2024 and silver in 2026 at the World Photographic Cup. I hold four gold medals from the Trierenberg Super Circuit in Vienna, and I have served as a judge for the Pano Awards and the 35AWARDS.
My photographs have been published in National Geographic, Forbes, BBC, El País and the Daily Mail. My exhibition Panoramic World has traveled to Valencia, Murcia, Calp and Mexico City, and in 2025 I published “Where the world still begins”, my book about Iceland.
Today I teach workshops and design photography tours around the world with IceMonkey Tours, in small groups, to take others to the places where I learned to see.
Published in National Geographic · Forbes · BBC · El País · Daily Mail
“A photo can take seven trips. Every one is worth it.”
José D. Riquelme
