When it comes to announcing the winners of the world’s greatest adventure and action sports imagery contest, the question is – how to make the biggest impact?

The creative solution we devised for the 2021 edition of Red Bull Illume Image Quest was to create a week-long series of live shows that ran on Instagram @redbullillume, announcing category winners every day with a host of judges, Red Bull athletes such as Anna Gasser, Jon Olsson, Will Gad, and Rafa Ortiz – surprising the winning photographers by inviting them into the live call.

Every day for five days we announced two category winners, culminating in the live unveiling of the overall winner at an event in Aspen Snowmass, CO, USA coinciding with the launch of the global exhibit tour.

Out of 41,447 images submitted by thousands of photographers from all around the world, Will Saunders was unveiled as the overall winner for his stunning shot of climber Jake Talley taking a lead fall while climbing in Indian Creek, Utah. He was handed the overall winner trophy by former overall winner Chris Burkard.

The result was a truly global event that allowed Red Bull Illume fans, photographers and the events’ partners to fully engage in and be a part of.

© Will Saunders / Red Bull Illume