The Wildlife Photographer of the Year award, is one the most prestigious awards in photography. Founded and organized by the Natural History Museum in London, the 2016 open competition attracted almost 50,000 submissions for the competition. For the fourth time, finalists and winners from each category of the competition have been publicly exhibited at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM). The competition’s mission, led by the British museum, is to change the public’s perspective on the environment and raise awareness of sustainability and biodiversity. The exhibition is astonishing, offering a wide range of focuses and angles on the environment and its inhabitants. The colours are strong, reflecting an unknown, fantastical world. Photographers did not only try to depict the nice and beautiful aspects of nature, they also captured the harsher ones. These photographs show that animals live in survival mode, and that different life cycles exist in different environments.
British photographer Simon Stafford’s The aftermath presents a hyena in the foreground, standing in front of a mass of wildebeest corpses, piled up on top of each other. The image captures both the chilling predatory gaze of the hyena, but also the disturbing massacre of the wildebeest. One can only empathize with the prey. This scene was taken in one of Kenya’s national parks, near the Mara River.
Photographers face many hurdles when trying to capture the best shot. Charlie Hamilton James left his camera in the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming for six months. He positioned his camera where he knew that Yellowstone bears came to eat animal carcasses. After picking up his camera and going through 200,000 pictures, he found one of a bear fighting vultures for his meal. The fight for survival is exposed in a wide landscape, adorned by gorgeous mountains.
Submissions to this exhibit are not limited to experienced photographers. The ROM also hosts an exhibition for young photographers. In the “Ten and Under” category, a young artist called Carlos Perez Naval won the prize for his photo, A delicate balance. With his strong focus, he captured a tiny bird sitting on a branch. The white background strengthens the subject and lets the audience enter this hidden world of smallness with the child photographer.
The exhibition is comprised of contributors to several different categories, but there is only one ultimate title winner. The winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year award, 2016 is American biologist/photojournalist, Tim Laman. With his GoPro, he shot an Orangutan climbing a tree in Indonesia from a bird’s eye view. This scene offers a sensational perspective of the ape in its natural habitat. The struggle and work put into this picture portrays the passion of the photographer, whose ambition is to let us discover this unknown world.
After scanning the exhibition, I found my favourite picture. Alexandre Hec, a French photographer, travelled to Hawaii and captured shooting lava from an erupting volcano. He effortlessly captured its heat in contrast to the darkness. The strong shades of orange and red relayed a real message of beauty.
4.5