A drone photograph of glowing lava on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula has won the Beauty of Nature category at the 2026 Siena International Photo Awards. The image, titled A Powerful Onset, was taken by Reykjavík-based photographer Marco Di Marco, who received the prize at a ceremony in Siena, Italy, on Saturday 10 October.
The winning picture shows lava at Sundhnúkagígar, the crater row in the Svartsengi volcanic system. Di Marco took it shortly after midnight on 21 November 2024, only a few hours after an eruption had started late on 20 November. He flew his drone in strong winds, with the air temperature at minus 9C, to capture the glowing lava from above in the dark. The picture was taken in the first hours of the eruption, when the lava was at its brightest against the night sky.
Iceland Review stressed that the image comes from the archive. “It is an archival photograph, rather than an image of a current eruption,” the publication noted. The eruption in the picture later became known for sending lava as far as the car park of the Blue Lagoon, the geothermal spa that sits near the Svartsengi area and is one of Iceland’s best-known visitor sites.
Di Marco is originally from Sicily and has lived in Iceland since 2018. According to his press release, his work documents the country’s volcanic terrain, and he supplies photographs to the Associated Press. Living in Iceland has put him close to the eruptions on Reykjanes, and A Powerful Onset is one of the results of that work. He made the winning image available for editorial use and sent his release, together with the photograph, to Iceland Review on 11 October, the day after the ceremony in Italy.
The award also drew attention in Italy. Dove, the travel publication of Corriere della Sera, reported Di Marco’s win in its coverage of the Siena awards on 10 October. The Beauty of Nature prize adds international recognition to a body of work built around Reykjanes, the peninsula where the Sundhnúkagígar crater row lies, and puts an Icelandic eruption among the year’s winning images in one of Italy’s photography competitions. For Di Marco, the result means a photographer born in Sicily has taken an Italian prize with a picture made in his adopted home in Iceland.
