Photography News Issue 39

Photography News | Issue 39 | absolutephoto.com

Interview

shot’ – you haven’t seen that before, indeed it would have been near impossible to do without the deep experience and skill of the photographer combining with technology advances, and then a fortunate moment. You won’t get it again easily. Second, it captures a scene that is charged with a very potent back story, the fate of the orangutans as their habitat becomes more and more depleted. Although this animal is fortunate to be in a reserve, somehow his perilous position on this isolated tree becomes charged with a great symbolic force. Thirdly, Tim Laman is a photographer who works so hard and long to arrive at the situations where he gets amazing images… in a way, this photograph has been 20 years in the making. How do you feel the standard of the competition is improving year after year? Does it make the judging process more difficult? Yes, the standard does keep improving: that’s not to criticise the past because we are all constantly building on the work of what has come before. I don’t think it makes judging any more difficult – perhaps it makes it more pleasurable, if anything. It can get a little painful when we finally prefer one great image over another but I think we manage to

do that, mostly, with unanimity. There was no violence around split-decisions!

Are there any particular types of images that have been overdone over the years, too much repetition maybe? Yes, that does happen… the list is too long to itemise here. There is a tendency for some entries to be decent versions of what has already won in previous years. That’s a valid thing to do, to add to your portfolio or just develop your skills, but you can’t expect the jury to reward such an entry. I think it happens across all subject areas. It is a sign of the influence of the award that next year some entries will be rather too similar to winners from this year and last.When putting together an entry it pays to think about which images do have real points of difference. What makes a winning image? For those looking to enter the next competition what should they be aiming to capture? There can be no formula – if there was, I don’t think we would be getting excited about the results of the competition. It’s the very unpredictability of how you arrive at a great image that makes us all interested in looking and also makes photographers want to get up early and get out there. But my summary of

©PaulHilton

©SimonStafford

what goes on behind our overall winner this year is some kind of guide: the need to capture a special moment in an original way, with great technical mastery, and for that to give us a valuable and unique insight into the living world around us. Why should photographers enter the Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards? Because it is always great to measure your work against your fellow photographers, take part in a friendly competitive environment that is all about good things. Even if you don’t get selected, you take part in something valuable. All the entries are helping the event take place and grow. It’s a key activity of a wonderful not-for-profit institution, the Natural History Museum, which exists to inform, explore, inspire, educate. Any final advice? Like many people, I salute single magpies and find this conducive to thinking I have had a hand in generating any incidents of good luck. It is a harmless superstition that gives me a (very) small sense of control of destiny. So besides working really, really hard at making your pictures as good as they can be, and having a lot of fun doing so, I would advise you to submit your entry with the blessing of some undisturbed wild creature. You can make your own rules on that one. Wildlife Photographer of the Year 53 is open for entries until 15 December 2016. For more details and to enter visit nhm.ac.uk/ visit/wpy/competition

Previous page Entwined Lives by Tim Laman, grand title winner. Clockwise fromtop The Pangolin Pit by Paul Hilton, winner, wildlife photojournalist single image category; The Alley Cat by Nayan Khanolkar, winner, urban category; Snapper Party by Tony Wu, winner, underwater category; The Aftermath by Simon Stafford, winner, mammals category.