After receiving 50,000 entries from 95 countries, winners of the 2021 Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards have been announced. The grand title is granted to French underwater photographer and biologist, Laurent Ballesta, for his image of camouflage groupers leaving the milky cloud of eggs and sperm in Fakarava, French Polynesia. “The image works on so many levels,” says chair of the judging panel, writer and editor, Rosamund ‘Roz’ Kidman Cox OBE, “It also captures a magical moment—a truly explosive creation of life—leaving the tail-end of the exodus of eggs hanging for a moment like a symbolic question mark.”
See incredible winners from the 2020 Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards
The grand title for 2021 Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year is given to ten-year-old Vidyun R Hebber for his image of a tent spider with a tuk-tuk in the background. “The jury loved this photo from the beginning of the judging process,” says Dr. Natalie Cooper, a researcher with the Natural History Museum and jury member, “It is a great reminder to look more closely at the small animals we live with every day and to take your camera with you everywhere. You never know where that award-winning image is going to come from.”
Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London.
Think you have what it takes to be named the next Wildlife Photographer of the Year? The 2022 competition—open to photographers of all ages and abilities—closes on December 9, 2021.
