Poisoned River, Romanian photographer Gheorghe Popa's depiction of environmental disaster, won first place in the Abstract category at this year's Drone Photo Awards.

A personal project of Popa's, it shows a small river full of poison produced by chemical waste generated from the mining of copper and gold in the Apuseni mountains in Romania's Transylvania.

The picture was selected from tens of thousands of images submitted by photographers from 102 countries.

Together with the first-place shots in the eight categories of the awards, it will be showcased in the Above Us Only Sky exhibition held in Siena in Tuscany, Italy, from Oct 23 to Dec 5.

The exhibition is part of the Siena Awards festival dedicated to the visual arts.

Born in 1982 in Aiud, a city located at the base of the mountains, Popa is also a pharmacist.

He aims to highlight the environment as well as encourage viewers to protect it through his photography works, which have garnered him other awards, such as the Fred Hazelhoff Portfolio Award at the 2019 Nature Photographer of the Year.