Aviation Week’s 2022 Photo Contest: Meet The 2022 Winning Photographers

Best of the Best

Steven Hayes is an aeronautical engineer who has worked on the space shuttle, the International Space Station, Northrop B-2 bomber, and on numerous commercial aircraft at Boeing as a customer support engineer and airline regional marketing director in Southeast Asia. He also was involved in marketing military derivatives of Boeing commercial aircraft. His career at Boeing spanned 32 years. Hayes, who is also a private pilot, has been taking aviation photos since the 1980s. This is his first time as an Aviation Week Photo Contest winner.

First Place, Defense and Second Place, Defense

Amit Agronov began taking photographs at age 13 and had a photo published in an international magazine just three years later. He documents the Israeli Air Force’s activities, aircraft and personnel. His passion takes him to different locations around the world to photograph international exercises, air shows and more. For the past 2.5 years, Agronov has served in the Israeli Air Force as an aerial photographer for IAF Magazine. His photos have been published by major Israeli and international media outlets.

Third Place, Defense

Filip Modrzejewski is chief editor of the Foto Poork aviation portal. Based in the UK, he has logged more than 600 hr. of air-to-air photo shoots in fighter jets, helicopters, heavy transports and tankers as well as in general aviation aircraft flying a wide variation of missions. Modrzejewski also is a private pilot with experience in multiple general aviation aircraft.

First Place, Commercial

Andy Egloff has been in love with aviation since taking his first flight at age 4 on a Republic Airways DC-9-10. He now works as a flight dispatcher for a major U.S. airline, giving him the opportunity to visit many U.S. airports and shoot photographs. He and his girlfriend, also an aviation photographer, hope to pass on their love of aviation to their children and eventually grandchildren.

Second Place, Commercial

Marty Wolin is a freelance photographer who specializes in aviation and fire photography. He won first place in the Commercial category in the 2020 photo contest. He has worked for Combat Camera at the former Norton AFB, California, and for Lockheed Martin as a photographer in Ontario and Palmdale, California. His photos have been featured in many photography and aviation publications. In addition, he has taught photography at various schools and other organizations. His work is available at instagram.com/eyefolio_photography.

Third Place, Commercial and Second Place, Space

Michael Seeley lives in Melbourne, Florida, and is a co-founder of We Report Space. Seeley is also a professional fundraiser, serving as the president of the Health First Foundation. He is an occasional contributor to National Geographic. Seeley won first place in the Space category in 2019.

First Place, Space

Mike Killian is a full-time aerospace photojournalist, covering spaceflight as well as military and civilian aviation. His work has taken him aboard NASA’s space shuttles and into clean rooms with Mars rovers. His scenes have included flying jets into solar eclipses and over the beaches of Normandy with D-Day veteran aircraft and the U.S. Air Force, not to mention flying off aircraft carriers as well as working with the Blue Angels and warbird operators.

Third Place, Space

Avichai Socher was trained as an aerospace engineer. He has photographed a wide range of subjects, including aviation, wildlife and landscapes. He specializes in creative night photography. Socher won first place in the Defense category in 2014 and 2016, second place in Defense in 2019 and second place in the Commercial category in 2018.

First Place, General

Mike Fizer operates Breezeway Studio in Wichita, which specializes in aviation photography. He was senior photographer for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association from 1998-2011. He entered the aviation photography field in 1984 after working in a custom color lab that processed film for well-known aviation photographers.

Second Place, General

Bastien Otelli is a professional aviation photographer whose work has been published in English, French, German, Japanese and South Korean aviation publications. Aviation is in Otelli’s genes: His father was an aerobatic pilot and display team leader for the Royal Moroccan Air Force’s Green March team. He also has done photo shoots for Dassault and Airbus and writes about aviation subjects for various publications.

Third Place, General

James Reeder has worked as an engineer in quality assurance, testing, flight test and operations at Pratt & Whitney since retiring after 22 years with the U.S. Navy, where he was an aircraft mechanic, crew chief and flight engineer. He holds a bachelor’s degree in professional aeronautics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a master’s degree in photography from the Academy of Art University. Reeder has a lifelong love of aviation and is based in Palmdale, California, which offers many opportunities to see interesting aircraft and spacecraft.