London’s Natural History Museum celebrated the 60th anniversary of its museum Nature Photographer of the Year (WPY) competition earlier this month. With more than 59,000 entries from 117 countries to analyze for the 2024 competition, the WPY committee awarded 18 category winners and selected a total of 100 photographs to include in the flagship exhibition now on view at the museum through the end of June.
While we at Hyperallergic If we can appreciate the invaluable biodiversity captured on a global scale by these photographs, we could not help but make natural comparisons to the ever-expanding canon of art history – beginning with the Biblical story of David and Goliath, in this case rendered by 16th-century Mannerist painter Daniele da Volterra, evoking the same energy of the victorious red carpenter ants making off with the colossal body of a deceased beetle in Ingo Arndt’s ‘The Demolition Squad’ (above). Some say life imitates art, but from what we have seen the truth is that art actually imitates art. wildto live!
Next up is Canadian photojournalist Shane Gross, who took the big title for his energetic snapshot of tadpoles running through a lake on Vancouver Island, which closely resembles Dale Chihuly’s signature spiral glass horns and globes. Chihuly’s chandelier in the rotunda of London’s Victoria and Albert Museum was an obvious comparison because of its thematic color palette, but it’s also a necessary reminder that there really is no competition with the brightness and saturation in nature.
Germany-based teenage photographer Alexis Tinker-Tsvalas managed to bring a springtail – no more than a tenth of an inch in size – face to face with the fruiting body of a slime mold from beneath a rotting piece of wood. The contemplation of the hexapod shares important characteristics with the ancient Greek mythological tyrant Sisyphus, who was cursed by the gods to spend eternity in the underworld pushing a boulder up a hill. Fortunately for the springtail, there is no eternal punishment in sight!
While I normally find seals very cute, this snapshot of an intrigued leopard seal in Antarctic waters is deeply disturbing. As it may be taken directly from a portrait of Francis Bacon…
I may have outdone myself here in terms of uncanny similarities. Compositionally, Sage Ono’s snapshot of tube-snouted fish eggs collected on the floating bulbs of giant kelp at California’s Monterrey Bay National Marine Sanctuary directly mirrors Modigliani’s double portrait of the Lipchitz pair. Both images also maintain an essence of glamor at the neckline!
The bond between mother and child is as sacred as it is instinctive – whether it is a baby toque macaque nestling in its mother’s body, or Michelangelo’s post-crucifixion portrayal of Jesus draped over the lap of the Virgin Mary in ‘Madonna della Pietà’ (ca. 1498). –1499).
Now I want you to hear me out here… This next one could be quite a task.
This fantastically composed shot earned young Alberto Román Gómez the title of Nature Photographer of the Year for Children 10 and Under. With his clean lines, hanging chains and minimal subjects, I think we can also say that he earned his photo with a comparison to the influential style of Piet Mondrian:
If that wasn’t convincing enough, what follows will certainly leave little doubt. The endangered boto dolphins, known for their pink color and elongated snouts, are endemic to the Amazon and its tributaries. In Thomas Peschak’s photograph, a lone boto wanders the shallow waters of a flooded forest landscape that could well be an extension of John Everett Millais’s “Ophelia” (1851–1852). One can only hope that the freshwater species will not suffer the same tragic fate…
On to the highly recommended entries (which are winners in my heart at least) – Samual Stone’s “Precious Rocks” reminded me of none other than the kettle-headed hybrid bird chewing down a person pooping out flying birds, a detail of Hieronymus Bosch ‘ fantastic rendition of “The Garden of Earthly Delights” (ca. 1490–1510):
Right: Detail from ‘The Garden of Earthly Delights’ by Hieronymus Bosch (ca. 1490–1510) (image via Wikimedia Commons)
And last but not least we have Georgina Steytler’s photographed observation of a group of male Dawson’s burrowing bees swarming a female in an attempt to mate, which was immediately reminiscent in both color palette and general energy of Gustav Klimt’s ‘The Kiss’ (1907 -1908). I suppose I’ll put a pin in it now before I start pontificating about how intersectional feminism can just as easily extend to interspecies feminism – there is always for that another time.
Hrag Vartanian, Valentina Di Liscia, Lakshmi Amin Rivera, Shari Flores and Lisa Yin Zhang contributed to this piece.
