The world-renowned Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition, on loan from the Natural History Museum in London, has opened at Herbert Gallery in Coventry.

The prestigious international competition has been running since 1964 and features numerous categories including animal portraits, plants and fungi, photojournalism, and natural artistry. Each image is illuminated from behind in a lightbox-style display that makes them glow around the gallery, showcasing the spectacular scenes they depict.

This year’s awards ceremony took place on Tuesday 10 October with a grand prize of £10,000 awarded to the overall winner. A second prize of £1,500 was awarded to the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year (photographers who are aged 17 and under). 

Richard Sabin, Principal Curator of Marine Mammals at the Natural History Museum, is one of this year’s judges for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. Richard has been involved in the competition for the past 20 years as part of the team responsible for adding a scientific perspective to the images after selection. ‘These are things that people have invested time and energy and emotion into, so it’s a great sense of responsibility.’

It’s also a huge task: there were almost 50,000 images submitted to the competition this year, from 95 countries around the world. ‘You don’t necessarily have to have that strict technical ability to see something special in an image’, said Richard. ‘It’s about how it speaks to you, it's the ‘one frame story’ idea, the depth of the narrative, the power in the image.’

The winner of the grand prize, titled The Golden Horseshoe - and photographed by Laurent Ballesta, features a Tri-Spined Golden Horseshoe Crab on the sea floor. This was one of Richard’s particular favourites from the start. ‘It’s a subject that you just don’t see represented in photography competitions for wildlife. It’s an unusual species.’  

Richard offers some insight into the life of the animal: ‘It’s a survivor from deep time: it’s been around for 300 million years. But the coastal environment in which it lives is being degraded because of development around the Philippines, and so it’s surviving that pressure. Its blood is in demand, because it contains coagulants and other properties which are important for the development of human vaccines. There’s so many different things that people are given access to just in that one image.’

Perhaps the most moving and urgent message of the exhibition is that of conservation. So many of the images submitted to the competition tell a story of the impact humans have on the environment. Richard could provide extra insight about this when judging, particularly regarding the images that feature his specialism: marine mammals.  

One submission, photographed by Lennart Verheuvel, shows a beached Orca in the Netherlands. ‘The first thing that struck me - I work with Orcas, and I could tell that this was an individual that was very malnourished.’ After the photograph was taken, the Orca was discovered to have ingested chemical pollutants from the ocean. ‘It’s an animal in difficulty, the image shows that, and before you even get the narrative presented to you, you can tell that there’s a sad story here.’

All of the photographs featured in the exhibition tell stories; a testament to the skill of the competitors, who capture moments of drama and energy in one still image. Moving around the exhibition, you are transported beneath the sea, into the sky and back down to earth, getting an inkling of the vast size of a whale, who barely fits into the frame of the photo, before being shrunk down to the size of a spider. 

Several of the entries (including the grand title winner) feature plants, animals and fungi that seem other-worldly. They show secrets uncovered and brought into focus by the photographers. 

Richard added: ‘One of my other favourites was the gorgeous image of the mushrooms, releasing their spores, taken in Greece at exactly the right moment, with the right lighting, that shows this incredible release of spores, this beautiful rainbow effect. There’s something slightly psychedelic about it, but it’s just magical. It’s like a magical kingdom that has been photographed. It’s something that’s hidden - something right under your feet; you wouldn’t even notice it was there.’

Part of the exhibition showcases the entries from photographers aged 17 and under, and it’s particularly impressive to see the style and skill of these young competitors. They all have a real eye for detail, each capturing a moment that encapsulates the world as they see it.

One of the things that Richard loves about the competition is that it is open to everyone:  ‘People might think that to be a wildlife photographer you need thousands of pounds worth of equipment, expensive camera kit, but you don’t. You have to have the passion. You have to have the desire to want to be out there, and to capture images from the world that’s important to you, and to share it with people. Whether it’s through photojournalism, where you’re telling a hard-hitting story, or whether it’s in your own backyard.’

During his visit to Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Richard took the opportunity to reunite with Dippy - the famous Diplodocus skeleton cast, who is currently on loan from the Natural History Museum. As a curator, Richard was also involved in the selection of Hope - the whale skeleton who now takes pride of place in London’s Natural History Museum foyer. 

‘I was really over the moon to know that Dippy was going to be in the Midlands for three years, and now the lightbox exhibition (referring to Wildlife Photographer of the Year) is launching here outside of London. I remember how difficult it was for me to get to London as a kid.’ 

Having grown up in the Midlands, Richard appreciates the importance of iconic exhibitions visiting different venues around the country. ‘National museums releasing these fabulous specimens and exhibitions to other parts of the country, giving families who don’t have those resources the opportunity to have the experience - I’m all for it.’

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at Herbert Art Gallery & Museum until Monday 1 April 2024. Tickets cost £7.50, with concessionary and group discounts available.

Dippy In Coventry: The Nation's Favourite Dinosaur remains on display in Herbert Art Gallery & Museum until 21 February 2026.

Title Photograph: Life on the Edge © Amit Eshel

Jessica Clixby