Discover the 15 photos selected for the final of the 2022 Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Author: Clark Tos

2022-09-12 16:24:01

Since 1965, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition has spotlighted global talent and given audiences insight into animals around the world. While awaiting the announcement of this year's winners, the competition has released a preview of a selection of absolutely stunning images.

Credit : Richard Robinson / Brandon Güell

These exceptional images show us all the diversity of the animal world, from a gathering of tree frogs to a polar bear hanging out in an abandoned house, passing by an octopus hiding in a clam shell. If the quality of these photos is to be believed, the winners of this year's contest will be of high quality. The 15 featured images are just a fraction of the 100 winning and finalist photographs that will be announced in full in October. Each photo was judged anonymously on its creativity, originality and technical excellence by an international panel of industry experts.

Photographers of all ages and backgrounds were invited to submit their best photos of wild animals. For this 2022 contest, 93 countries were represented and their images were sorted into categories such as Animal Portraits, Behavior and Urban Wildlife. As always, journalistic stories that explain the context of each photo are also appreciated. Dutch photojournalist Jasper Doest won for his portrayal of a river manager in Zambia. The photo is part of a larger report on wetland conservation in the region.

While many of the photographs, like Dmitry Kokh's portrait of a polar bear, are whimsical, several share an important message. For Canadian photographer Jo-Anne McArthur, showing cruelty to animals is an important part of her work and is necessary to bring about a global change in mentality. His picture of poor living conditions on a mink farm in Sweden is hard to watch, but it needs to be seen by the public for change to finally take place in the next few years.

The winners of the competition soon to be announced

Rewarding such diversity of work is essential for the competition , which is managed by the Natural History Museum in London. 'What stood out to me was not just the extraordinary mix of subjects in this year's collection which composes a vast panorama of the natural world, but also the emotional force of so many photos' said Roz Kidman Cox , president of the jury. All finalists and winners will be revealed on October 11 at an exclusive awards ceremony. The Natural History Museum will then launch the all-new Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition from October 14, 2022 in London.

Here are the 15 photos already published: