This September, we invited you to look a little closer, get creative and capture the moments that might otherwise go unnoticed as part of the Open House Festival Photography Competition 2026 ‘The detail that changed everything’, in partnership with Story of Home.
Here’s a gallery of the winners, plus some of our favourite highly-commended entries.
Thank you to everyone who took part.
First Place
‘Worm’ by Alan Cheng
Runners-up
‘The Little Boy and the Dyson Fan’
by Sylvia Han-Hsi Cheng
‘Sneaking back in’
by Alexandru Istudor
‘Two Readers’
by Nadim Kurimbokus
Highly commended
'Jungles Living Room', Adam Carballo Romero
Xinyue Yin
'Holy Incense at Sunset', Pimchanok N
Amanda Leung
'A Division of Three', Anna Gibson
'A Fabric Dream', Dimitra Georgakopoulou
Anne-Sophie Diebold
'Raw Between Warm', Antoine Quesne
Birgitte Laursen Jones
'Cyclops', Boji Hu
'Neon of the Past', Caroline Samberger
'Cathedral of Power', Andy Rinkoff
Charlie Cowap
Chi Ming Cheung
Chia-Hsuan Lee
'Lady Chapel', Chloe Holness
Deborah Hide-Bayne
Daisy Herd
Daniel Thomas
'Reflections Atop the Tower', Daschle Pereira
'Garden Arches', E. Green
'For a Human Being', Simon Piesse
Gerry Absalom
'Dreamy Afternoons', Gigi Cooke
Dylan Ford
'Green Perspective', Chinedu Okafor
Hannah Larkin
'Hidden details', Puiyee Wong
Hilary Lodge
Hildegard Titus
Sarah Harris
'Bijou', Jackson Ng
Jake Ireland
Jeanne Broc
Judith Lewis
Julia Emailianova
'Ceiling', Kim Moxey
'Little Oasis in W12', Lucinda Newton Dunn
'I Spy Across the Building', Alcina Lo
'Cloud House Reflections', Maria Zappone
'Seeing London in miniature', Mark Samuels
Mark Sedge
'Naval', Matt Mayes
'Floreat Florentia', Matthew Taylor
Matthew Price
'Only Silence Remains', Amjad El Goushi
Linda S
Paula Simmons
Mwango Mubanga
Rebecca Hedges
Rebecca Zheng
Rob Bone
'Round The Room', Nadia Savvopoulou
'Echoes in Wood', Roy Stout
'The pull of history', Sandra Nicholls
'Shadows of All Saints', Caroline McHardy
'All Part of the Puzzle', Sophie Whitaker
Stephen Jones
'Inside Out', Thanrada McGregor
'The Carved Contrast', Iwona Wawro
'Top of the Clock', Emily Morgan
William K
'Light from Above', Xiaodan Wang
'A Shimmering Hour', Yaseen Docrat
Yizhan Zhang
Yolene Ors
'Where the Stars Came Through', Yoon Choi