ONE of the most impressive photography exhibitions of the year has revealed its first images for 2023.
The Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition has released more than a dozen images which received a highly commended award by the Natural History Museum ahead of the winners’ ceremony on October 10.
Announced by wildlife TV presenters and conservationists Chris Packham and Megan McCubbin, a scar-faced fox, a hitchhiking macaque and two storks hunting by a controlled fire are among the initial snapshots for people to admire.
What is the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition about?
It took #WPYAlumni Qing Lin six dives, immense patience and a pinch of luck, to capture the tiny eyes of the parasitic isopods peering out through the fish’s mouths.
— Wildlife Photographer of the Year (@NHM_WPY) August 28, 2023
Discover more fantastic underwater photography: https://t.co/Z6pfMRLseY pic.twitter.com/2WHBFVFvus
The competition showcases some lesser-known behaviours and habitats while exposing human impact on an increasingly fragile natural world.
For 2023, the 59th edition received nearly 50,000 entries from 95 countries, with photographers judged anonymously on their creativity, originality and technical skill.
Chairwoman of the judging panel Kathy Moran said: “What most impressed the jury was the range of subjects, from absolute beauty, rarely seen behaviours and species to images that are stark reminders of what we are doing to the natural world.
“We felt a powerful tension between wonder and woe that we believe came together to create a thought-provoking collection of photographs.”
What pictures feature in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition?
Among the 15 images is a fox in a Kent rehabilitation centre after being attacked, most likely by dogs, and two white storks hunting alongside a fire in Kenya that had been lit to clear bushland.
A rare snow leopard hunting a Pallas’s cat in China, a mason bee building its home from twigs, the swirling spores of a mushroom in Greece and a tiger cub being evacuated from eastern Ukraine are also included.
Caitlin Henderson was able to snap a possum munching on insects in the middle of the night outside her balcony window in Queensland, Australia.
“There were heads here, wings there,” she said after capturing the marsupial dismembering a green cicada.
Are you ready? 🤩
— Wildlife Photographer of the Year (@NHM_WPY) August 30, 2023
Each year, we offer a sneak peek of our latest Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. Tomorrow we’ll reveal an incredible selection of this year’s Highly Commended images.
Explore images from #WPYAlumni here: https://t.co/B0G1UqpLqh pic.twitter.com/V8QOfvIwPU
Atsuyuki Ohshima caught the moment a macaque sprang from a tree on to a deer on the Japanese island of Yakushima.
Dr Doug Gurr, director of the Natural History Museum, said: “We are facing urgent biodiversity and climate crises and photography is a powerful catalyst for change.
“The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition reveals some of nature’s most wondrous sights whilst offering hope and achievable actions visitors can take to help protect the natural world.”
The full gallery can be found on the Natural History Museum website.
An exhibition will run at the Natural History Museum from October 13 until June 30, 2024 with a UK and international tour of the photos afterwards.
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