For the 2024 edition, Wildlife Photographer of the Year, orchestrated by London’s Natural History Museum, has unveiled the winners of its prestigious nature photography competition. Discover the most beautiful shots of the year, taken by photographers who have succeeded in capturing suspended moments of flora and fauna.
Oceans, plants and fungi, invertebrates, amphibians and reptiles, animal portraits, urban life… Once again this year, the photographs in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition revealed nature as it is rarely seen. Out of nearly 60,000 entries, just a few caught the jury’s eye.
Shane Gross, winner of the Wildlife Photographer Grand Prix
Shane Gross, Canadian photojournalist specializing in the protection of marine environments and winner of the Grand Prix du Photographe Animalier, offers us a photograph worthy of the finest impressionist paintings. The photograph plunges us into the middle of Lac des Cèdres, near Ottawa, and reveals a scene of water-lily stems where blue tadpoles are trying to rise to the surface to feed. The photographer stayed underwater for several hours to avoid disturbing the species or lifting the silt that would have obstructed the water’s clarity, and used a fisheye lens that gives a panoramic view of the scene.
Germany’s Alexis Tinker Tsavalas won the Grand Prix in the 15 to 17 year-old photographers category, thanks to his shot of a tiny springtail (less than 2 mm) on a log, facing a bubble formed by a slimy fruiting mould. “Macrophotography is already a challenge when trying to capture a single species. To see them both photographed in such detail is exceptional. The moment the photographer has framed the shot, you get the impression that the slime mold and the springtail are having a conversation,” explained Kathy Moran, a member of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024 jury.
Eye-to-eye with lynx: this is what John E. Marriott, winner in the animal portrait category, has to offer. In a snowy Canadian landscape, in the forest of the Yukon region, the felines look at the photographer with intensity.
In the bird category, a young peregrine falcon and a butterfly share the frame. Photographer Jack Zhi spent eight weeks in the same place, observing the birds and trying to capture a moment suspended in mid-air, despite the speed of these animals.
Sri Lankan photographer Hikkaduwa Liyanage Prasantha Vinod took the prize in the behavior: mammals category for his moving shot of a baby toque macaque sleeping peacefully in its mother’s arms.
In the behavior: amphibians and reptiles category, a yellow anaconda wrapping itself around the mouth of an alligator in Brazil’s Pantanal National Park won the prize for Karine Aigner.
Ingo Arndt won in the behavior: invertebrates category. Close-up of a swarm of red ants attacking a blue beetle.
In the Oceans : full frame category, Justin Gilligan unveiled a very committed shot. It shows a pale-footed shearwater alongside 403 pieces of plastic found in its digestive tract. The photograph was taken on Lord Howe Island in New South Wales, Australia, and denounces the consequences of plastic pollution in marine ecosystems.
Fortunato Gatto, winner in the Plants and Mushrooms category, delivers a shot of an old birch whose twisting branches are covered with pale lichens, a sign that pollution is minimal. White, green, gray, black, red and yellow mingle in this Scottish setting.
Finally, in the urban life category, German photographer Robin Darius Conz reveals a drone shot of an Indian tiger resting not far from human dwellings and farmland. A lovely contrast between nature and human activity.
The winners will be exhibited in London from October 11, 2024 to June 28, 2025. 25 photos are also in the running for the “People’s Choice Award” in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year nature photography competition. A book has also been published by Biotope.
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Featured Photo: © Jack Zhi / Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024
