Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Awarded for	Wildlife photography
Country	United Kingdom
Presented by	The Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine
First awarded	1964
Currently held by	Greg du Toit
Official website	http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is an annual international wildlife photography competition owned by the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife. It was known as BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year from 1990 to 2003, and briefly as Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Kodak Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Prudential Wildlife Photographer of the Year. The first competition was held in 1964, with three categories and around 600 entries.^[1] In 2008 the competition received over 32,000 entries from 3100 photographers in 82 countries.^[1] There is an exhibition of the winning and commended images each year at the Natural History Museum, which later tours around the world. It is often cited as being one of the most prestigious photography competitions in the world.^[2][3]

A book of winning entries and runners-up has been published each year since 1992,^[4] with two books being published in 1994 (the first three volumes were published the year after the corresponding competitions were held). Early volumes have become quite collectable.

Categories

Photographers can enter their images into a range of categories, whose criteria are mostly based on the subject matter of the images. There are also 3 categories for under 18's, and 3 special awards. The number and name of categories changes nearly every year. In each category a winning, runner-up and several highly commended images are usually chosen, although sometimes the judges will not choose a winner or runner up in a particular category if they deem the standard of entries not to be high enough. The categories in the 2011 competition were as follows:

• Behaviour: Birds
• Behaviour: Mammals
• Behaviour: All Other Animals
• Underwater Worlds
• Animal Portraits
• In Praise of Plants and Fungi
• Urban Wildlife
• Wildscapes
• Animals in their Environment
• Nature in Black & White
• Creative Visions
• The Eric Hosking Portfolio Awards
• The Gerald Durrell Award for Endangered Species
• The Wildlife Photojournalist Award
• 10 Years and Under
• 11-14 Years
• 15-17 Years

Winners

Overall winners of Wildlife Photographer of the Year from 1984

2014	Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2014	Michael "Nick" Nichols	The last great photograph	USA
2013	Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2013	Greg du Toit[5]	Essence of Elephants	South Africa
2012	Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2012	Paul Nicklen[6]	Bubble-jetting Emperors	Canada
2011	Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2011	Daniel Beltrá[7]	Still life in oil	Spain
2010	Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2010	Bence Máté[8]	A marvel of ants	Hungary
2009	Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009	José Luis Rodríguez (disqualified)[9]	The storybook wolf	Spain
2008	Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008	Steve Winter[10]	Snowstorm leopard	USA
2007	Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2007	Ben Osborne[11]	Elephant creation	UK
2006	Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2006	Göran Ehlmé[12]	Beast of the sediment	Sweden
2005	Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2005	Manuel Presti[13]	Sky chase	Italy
2004	Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2004	Doug Perrine	Bronze whalers charging a baitball	USA
2003	BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2003	Gerhard Schulz	Gorilla and boy	Germany
2002	BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2002	Angie Scott	African elephant family watching a grey heron	Kenya
2001	BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2001	Tobias Bernhard	Grey reef shark	Germany
2000	BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2000	Manoj Shah	Orang-utan and baby	Kenya/UK
1999	BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1999	Jamie Thom	Leopard with rising moon	South Africa
1998	BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1998	Manfred Danegger	Boxing hares	Germany
1997	BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1997	Tapani Räsänen	Common tern fishing	Finland
1996	BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1996	Jason Venus	Badger running	UK
1995	BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1995	Cherry Alexander	Blue iceberg, Antarctica	UK
1994	BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1994	Thomas D Mangelsen	Polar bear and arctic fox	USA
1993	BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1993	Martyn Colbeck	Bull elephant dusting	UK
1992	BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1992	André Bärtschi[14]	Red and green macaws	Liechtenstein
1991	BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1991	Frans Lanting[15]	Portfolio of 10 Images	Netherlands
1990	BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1990	Wendy Shattil[16]	Red fox cub	USA
1989	Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1989	Jouni Ruuskanen[17]	Red-throated diver	Finland
1988	Kodak Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1988	Jim Brandenburg[18]	Gemsbok in the Namib desert, Namibia	USA
1987	Prudential Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1987	Jonathan Scott[19]	Wild dog immobilising wildebeest	UK
1986	Prudential Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1986	Rajesh Bedi[20]	Himalayan black bear	India
1985	Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1985	Charles Summers[21]	Young cheetah coming to grips with its first springbok	USA
1984	Wildlife Photographer of the Year 1984	Richard Kemp and Julia Kemp[22]	Diving goosander	UK

2009 Controversy

The overall 2009 competition winner, José Luis Rodriguez, was stripped of his award and his £10,000 prize following allegations that his picture of a wolf leaping a gate had been staged, using a captive animal to do so. He was also prohibited from entering the competition for life. It was, however, too late to remove the image from the accompanying book.^[23]

Bibliography

• Wilkinson, Peter; Helen Gilks (1992). Wildlife photographer of the year portfolio one. Surbiton, Surrey :: Fountain Press. ISBN 0-86343-395-2. 
• Wildlife photographer of the year. London: BBC Books. 2006. ISBN 978-0-563-49384-6. 

References

External links

• Wildlife photographer of the year (Natural History Museum website)
• Guardian slideshow