The Natural History Museum in London Hosts Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2011 Images

Written by Jonathan Amos Friday, 17 February 2012 21:10

London (BBC).- The Natural History Museum is proud to host the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2011 exhibition. The winners were announced on October 19th, and more than 100 prize-winning photographs from the competition’s 17 categories are on show in the exhibition at the Natural History Museum from October 21st through March 11th 2012. Now in its 47th year, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition is an international showcase for the very best nature photography. The competition is owned by two UK institutions that pride themselves on revealing and championing the diversity of life on Earth - the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine. Being accepted into this competition is something to which wildlife photographers across the world aspire. Professionals win many of the prizes but amateurs succeed too. Each year, tens of thousands of entries are received and judged by an international jury of photography experts.

An image of brown pelicans smothered in oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill has earned Daniel Beltra the title of Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year (WPY) 2011. "They are so afraid, and yet they still seem so elegant," Daniel told BBC News. Daniel Beltra, who hails from Spain, entered an exceptional portfolio of pictures entitled The Price of Oil into the WPY's photojournalist category, which he also won. Most were aerial shots of the Gulf of Mexico slick and the desperate efforts made following the blow-out to clean up the mess; but it is the pelican portrait that stands out. The birds are seen clustered in a box at a rescue facility in Fort Jackson, Louisiana. At that moment, the animals had just gone through the first stage of cleaning, which involved spraying them with a light oil to break up the heavy crude trapped in their feathers. The resulting smelly, mucky residue dripped from the birds' plumage on to a white sheet. "The problem with birds is that as soon as they get dirty, they try to clean themselves, which means they swallow a lot of oil.


By November 2010, I think they had recovered over 6,000 dead birds," Daniel said. "There was a closed door on the box. Every so often it would be opened and a bird would be taken out to be cleaned properly. I had a 35mm lens and when that door was opened, I would look in and grab three or four shots. The intent was not to disturb them any more than was necessary." Judge Rosamund Kidman Cox said the image would make people sit up. "It is an 'oil painting'," she said. "The colours really make you think you are looking at a painting and then it hits you, what it is you're actually looking at. It has a very strong environmental message; it says everything," she told BBC News.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition tours the world annually. It celebrates the drama and splendour of the natural world, with astonishing, creative and sometimes humorous wildlife photography. It is suitable for an audience of all ages. The 2010 exhibition can currently be seen at the Australian Museum, Sydney, Bourges Muséum d'Historie Naturelle, Tourmalin in Oberammergau, Pas Events in Torino, Agencja Zegart in Bydgoszcz Poland, Crescent Initiativas in Madrid and the Museon den Haag in the Netherlands. The Natural History Museum is one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London, England (the others are the Science Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum). Its main frontage is on Cromwell Road. The museum is an exempt charity, and a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 70 million items within five main collections: Botany, Entomology, Mineralogy, Palaeontology and Zoology. The museum is a world-renowned centre of research, specialising in taxonomy, identification and conservation. Given the age of the institution, many of the collections have great historical as well as scientific value, such as specimens collected by Darwin. The Natural History Museum Library contains extensive books, journals, manuscripts, and artwork collections linked to the work and research of the scientific departments. Access to the library is by appointment only. The museum is particularly famous for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons, and ornate architecture — sometimes dubbed a cathedral of nature — both exemplified by the large Diplodocus cast which dominates the vaulted central hall. Originating from collections within the British Museum, the landmark Alfred Waterhouse building was built and opened by 1881, and later incorporated the Geological Museum. The Darwin Centre is a more recent addition, partly designed as a modern facility for storing the valuable collections. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, the Natural History Museum does not levy an admission charge. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.nhm.ac.uk

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