British amateur photographer Nima Sarikhani’s dreamy and serene portrait of a sleepy polar bear on an iceberg has been voted the People’s Choice winner in this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, the 59th edition of the famous photo contest.

The People’s Choice Award saw a record-breaking 75,000 votes cast, propelling Sarikhani to victory over 24 other finalists. These 25 finalists were chosen by the Natural History Museum in London and an international judging panel from nearly 50,000 submitted photos.

“Nima’s breathtaking and poignant image allows us to see the beauty and fragility of our planet. His thought-provoking image is a stark reminder of the integral bond between an animal and its habitat and serves as a visual representation of the detrimental impacts of climate warming and habitat loss,” says Dr. Douglass Gurr, Director of the Natural History Museum.

Sarikhani captured the image after three days of searching for polar bears off the coast of Norway. The expedition vessel the photographer was on decided to change its course and head toward areas where there was still sea ice.

The vessel located a pair of polar bears and one of them, the particularly photogenic of the two, clambered onto a small iceberg around midnight. He proceeded to carve out a bed for himself and settle in for a restful sleep.

“I am so honored to have won this year’s People’s Choice Award for WPY, the. Most prestigious wildlife photography competition,” Sarikhani says. “This photograph has stirred strong emotions in many of those who have seen it. Whilst climate change is the biggest challenge we face, I hope that this photograph also inspires hope; there is still to fix the mess we have caused.”

With the votes tallied, four “Highly Commended” finalists have also been decided, which can be seen below.

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London. The annual contest was originally founded in 1965 by BBC Wildlife Magazine. The Natural History Museum joined forces in 1984 and now owns and operates the contest.

Sarikhani’s People’s Choice Award joins the overall competition winners announced last fall.

The entrants of the 60th Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest are currently being judged, and the winners will be announced in October at a special awards ceremony in South Kensington, England.

Image credits: Images courtesy of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest, which is organized by the Natural History Museum in England. The individual photographers are credited in accompanying image captions.

An image of a young polar bear drifting off to sleep on an iceberg has won the UK’s annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice Award.

The shot was captured by British amateur photographer Nima Sarikhani in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, a region that has been particularly affected by global warming.

Mr Sarikhani said he wanted the photograph to inspire hope and that there is still time to “fix the mess we have caused” by the human-made climate crisis.

It came top in a public vote that saw a record 75,000 nature and photography enthusiasts choose their favourite picture from shortlist of 25 images.

Dr Douglas Gurr, director of the Natural History Museum, which runs the annual Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, said the picture is a visual representation of the impacts of climate change and habitat loss.

After three days searching for polar bears in thick fog off Svalbard, the expedition vessel Mr Sarikhani was travelling on changed course to where there was still some sea ice, and encountered two of the animals.

Just before midnight, a young male climbed on to a small iceberg and used his paws to scrape away the ice to carve out a bed for himself, allowing Mr Sarikhani to capture the moment the bear drifted off to sleep.

Dr Gurr said that Mr Sarikhani’s image allows us to see the “beauty and fragility of our planet”.

“His thought-provoking image is a stark reminder of the integral bond between an animal and its habitat and serves as a visual representation of the detrimental impacts of climate warming and habitat loss.”

Among the 25 pictures, four shots that also proved favourites with voters included the interaction between a pond turtle and a northern banded groundling dragonfly, and a starling murmuration forming the shape of a bird.

Two lionesses grooming a cub and two moon jellyfish illuminated by the aurora borealis in a fjord in Norway were also among the highly commended finalists in the public vote.

The shortlist for the People’s Choice Award was drawn by the Natural History Museum and an international judging panel from almost 50,000 images submitted for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

The five images will be displayed online and at the Natural History Museum in London until June 30, 2024.

Updated: February 07, 2024, 12:01 AM

NINA BANKS
managing editor
nina.banks@my.tccd.edu

“The talk” is a potentially lifesaving conversation Black families have with their children. 

Prior to the opening reception, Darough held an artist talk where he recalled receiving “the talk” on how to interact with his surroundings without drawing unnecessary attention to himself. 

“Before I left the house as a young kid, my parents had to sit down and have a conversation with me,” Darough said. “They had to talk to me about how I should carry myself in the streets, how I should address police officers, how I should address people. So that talk was necessary. If they wanted me to come home at the end of the day, they needed to make sure they had a conversation before I left.” 

Darough is from Ferguson, Missouri, where the Ferguson uprising took place after the murder of Michael Brown by a police officer in 2014. He often frequented the area where Brown was killed. 

“I could’ve been a Mike Brown,” Darough said.

Following the Ferguson uprising, Darough’s photography took a more political lens. “The Talk” exhibition drew inspiration from different sources throughout history and extensive research. 

“I started creating different images,” Darough said. “I was watching the news, and every time I am watching the news, I am jotting down notes. Who is being killed? Who is being stopped? How are they being stopped? The language that they are using with the individual. I am trying to make sure I am getting the rhetoric right so that when I am creating these images, they are coming from a place of truth.” 

TR speech instructor Sheldon Smart attended the artist talk and opening reception. Smart said the exhibit “hits close to home.” 

“Well, it was emotional obviously being a Black male,” Smart said. “I think it was also emotional because when you see the number of instances, it’s not a one-off type of thing. But it’s the number of instances.” 

Though his work focuses on a personal and heavy subject matter, Darough found the process of creating “The Talk” to be cathartic. 

“I had an opportunity to deconstruct the image and not focus on what I was feeling,” Darough said. “How I can make this presentable for the audience and how I can get people to enjoy this while still thinking about what’s going on?” 

TR student Lexine Henry resonated with the piece “I Fit the Description.” The work features Darough with his back toward the camera and hands raised towards two lights shining on him. 

“It’s a light and he’s surrounded, almost as if police got him,” Henry said. “Since this is a heavy thing, you kind of wonder and are kind of fearful of what’s going to happen because it’s within the context of all these pieces. We all know the ending in which they forcefully got murdered. They died, so you’re wondering how long is this going to continue?” 

Darough has enjoyed seeing the varied responses to his exhibition. 

“Everybody has a different reaction to it,” he said. “Some like the technical look of it. Some get lost in an image, and some feel very emotional and drawn to it.” 

He hopes attendees will understand that racial inequality still exists in the United States. 

“We have some work in terms of fixing that,” Darough said. “Until we acknowledge it and make efforts towards fixing the institutional racism we have, it’s going to continue to be a problem.” 

“The Talk” will be on display until Mar. 8 in the TR East Fork Gallery. 

A concert photographer convinced the Fourth Circuit to reverse a ruling that a conservative news website’s use of a 2013 photo of musician and gun-rights activist Ted Nugent constituted fair use.

Larry Philpot established that all four statutory fair-use factors weighed against a federal judge’s finding that the Independent Journal Review’s use of his work was allowable, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said in a precedential opinion Tuesday. The use of the photo alongside a listicle titled “15 Signs Your Daddy Was a Conservative” wasn’t transformative, and the fact that licensing it wouldn’t have required a …