Wildlife photographer of the year 56

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year returns to Milan, the most prestigious naturalistic photography exhibition in the world, which this year changes location and is housed in the evocative spaces of Palazzo Francesco Turati (formerly the Forma space) in via Meravigli 7 , from 1 October to 31 December 2021.

As always organized by the Cultural Association Radicediunopercento, with the patronage of the Municipality of Milan, the highly anticipated exhibition, which in 2020 did not take place Coronavirus emergency, opens this year in total safety.

The president Roberto Di Leo explains: “despite the organizational difficulties, we have decided not to let the Milanese public miss this much-loved event and to give a signal of recovery. The exhibition will be open to limited admissions with the obligation of a green pass and the space has been adapted to the health regulations in force. The positive side is that with the spacing, the beautiful photographic images can be admired one after the other, exclusively. We are sure of the support of visitors that we invite you to take advantage of the reduced ticket during the week and the evening hours to allow the greatest possible distribution of attendance, because we distance ourselves to get closer and finally return to participate. “

To see on display the 100 images awarded at the 56th edition of the photography competition organized by the Natural History Museum in London which saw in competition 45,000 shots from 95 countries, made by professional and amateur photographers.

Selected at the end of last year by an international jury of experts, on the basis of creativity, artistic value and technical complexity, the finalist and winning photos portray rare animals in their habitat, unusual behaviors and extraordinary landscapes; the beauty of nature but also its fragility to defend and preserve.

Winner of the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020 title is the Russian Sergey Gorshkov with “The Embrace”. The image depicts a Siberian tiger, an endangered species, hugging an ancient Manchurian fir to mark the territory. It took over eleven months to be able to capture this shot obtained thanks to cameras with motion sensors.

The young Finnish Liina Heikkinen is the winner of the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2020 with “The Fox That Got the Goose “. The photo, taken on one of the Helsinki islands, depicts a young red fox fiercely defending the remains of a goose from its five rival brothers.

Two Italians among the category winners: Luciano Gaudenzio, with the shot “Etna's River of Fire” (Environments of the earth), and the young Alberto Fantoni, winner of the Rising Star Portfolio Award with images documenting the life of birds in the Mediterranean. Five other Italian photographers received a special mention: Domenico Tripodi (The underwater world), Alessandro Gruzza (Environments of the earth), Andrea Pozzi (Plants and mushrooms), Andrea Zampatti and Lorenzo Shoubridge (Animals in their environment).

Due to the spacing obligation that does not allow groups to be gathered along the exhibition route, this year guided tours are organized live online on the Zoom platform, every Friday at 20.30 (7 euros) but they will be conducted as always by the 'mythical' Marco Colombo, naturalist and photographer, winner of various editions of the WPY. The guided tour is also introduced by the video “People's Choice Award” with the 25 photos awarded by the popular jury and by an interesting speech by Paolo Russo (Exhibition Partnerships Manager Touring Exhibitions) who explains the value of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year in the context of strategies of the Natural History Museum in London. There will also be a multimedia content linked to the absolute winning photo “The Embrace” by Sergey Gorshkov.
Also live online, Tuesday 23 November extra visit with Francesco Tomasinelli (naturalist, photographer and scientific consultant of the TV spettacolo Geo on RAI3 ) on the theme of 'mimicry'.

But it is not just an exhibition but a great event dedicated to nature through photography. The Cultural Association Radicediunopercento offers, as usual, free evenings of in-depth study and presentation of books with renowned nature photographers which will be held on Saturday at the Casa della Cultura (9 pm via Borgogna 3).
On the program: the November 13 Bruno D'Amicis with For every photo there is a story – my life as a naturalist photographer, on November 27 Fortunato Gatto (award-winning at the WPY) with Landscape photography, on December 4 Marco Colombo presents the book Il bosco delle masks and on 18 December Stefano Unterthiner talks about the book A different world.

And for those who want to know more, during the period of the exhibition, the Cultural Association Radicediunopercento organizes Theoretical Courses of Photography and Seminars of Natural Sciences online with well-known science communicators and internationally renowned naturalist photographers such as Marco Colombo, Francesco Tomasinelli, Fortunato Gatto and Pietro Formis.

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