Portfolio 30 displays the full collection of 100 images awarded in the 2020 competition. Selected by an international jury for their artistic merit and originality from over 45,000 entries, they represent the work of over 100 nationalities. Displaying different styles, techniques and ways of seeing, the collection is both a showcase for photographers who specialise in documenting the natural world and a celebration of nature. Despite their name, horseshoe crabs are not actually crabs but more closely related to spiders and scorpions. They have a hard external carapace that is split into two parts, while underneath they have five pairs of legs that end in tiny little claws which they use to walk and capture prey.

You must not do anything to injure or distress an animal or damage its habitat in an attempt to secure a photograph. This includes flying (or flying a drone) too low or noisily over an animal and taking photographs at nests using wide angle lenses although telephoto lenses are permitted. An animal’s welfare must always come first.To celebrate the 60th anniversary the jury will award a special prize, within the 100 winning images, in any category, to recognise a conservation success, a story of hope and/or positive change. Further updates to the competition rules stipulate that photographs must have been taken within the last five years, and that all entries must be the result of a photographic process using a camera. For the second time, French photographer Laurent Ballesta was announced as this year’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year for his otherworldly image of a tri-spine horseshoe crab accompanied by a trio of golden trevallies. Following last year’s record number of women entering the competition, Wildlife Photographer of the Year is again particularly calling for more entries from women and nonbinary photographers. You can submit a maximum of twenty five (25) photographs in total regardless of how many of the above categories you submit entries for. This includes: Seventeen-year-old Carmel Bechler from Israel was awarded the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2022 for his dynamic frame of barn owls in an abandoned roadside building.

Chair of the judging panel, Roz Kidman Cox says, ‘What’s stayed with me is not just the extraordinary mix of subjects in this year’s collection – a vast panorama of the natural world – but the emotional strength of so many of the pictures.’ Only Category Winners will be considered by the Jury for Wildlife Photographer of the Year. The Jury reserves the right to also include for consideration one (1) photograph selected by them from the Category Winner of each of the following multiple photograph categories:The Competition comprises an Adult Competition open to photographers aged 18 and over, and a Young Competition open to photographers aged 17 and under. A panel of experts comprising a chair and judges ("the Jury") will be appointed by us to select and award approximately one hundred (100) entries from the Adult and Young Competitions combined. The newly announced judging panel of international experts will gather in London in February 2024 to select 100 of the most unique nature and wildlife images. Each entry will be judged anonymously on its originality, narrative, and ethical practice. The trunk that survives is the marine species, but I think that an important part of the story of these animals is that lost diversity, partly in what they were looking like but also in the lost ecologies.’ i) commence on the date you are notified of your Award and continue for a period five (5) years; and

Among the newly released Highly Commended images is Tiina Törmänen’s otherworldly encounter with fish ‘flying’ through cloud-like algae, and Morgan Heim’s special interaction between a pygmy rabbit and a beetle in Washington State’s Columbia Basin. The contrast between the natural world and human infrastructure is artfully captured by Jose Fragozo in Nairobi, and Srikanth Mannepuri offers a sobering look at the scale of unsustainable fishing. When it comes to the tri-spine horseshoe crab specifically, there is a fossil from Lebanon dating to 100 million years old that is thought to belong to the same group as the living species. This means that the ancestors of the beautiful golden arthropod photographed by Laurent were swimming around the warm shallow seas whilst Tyrannosaurus rex stalked the land and pterosaurs soared in the skies. Whilst the information in these Rules is correct, we, in our sole discretion but acting reasonably, reserve the right without prior notice to:

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Non-awarded digital entries submitted into the Competition will not be stored or returned by us after the names of awarded photographers are announced. b. the Museum and the Touring Exhibition Licence shall retain (electronic or otherwise) copies of promotional or commercial materials created to publicise, promote or commercialise the Competition or Exhibition but in both cases must seek your permission if we or they wish to use the photographs for any further purpose. If you are successful, you will be notified in strict confidence. It is a condition of entry, any Award and any prize that you do not disclose the details of any shortlisted or winning entries to any third party. You are responsible for ensuring full compliance with any applicable national or international legislation (including in relation to drones) and for securing any relevant permits (which, in the case of human portraits, will include the subject’s permission) and which must be made available to us if we request it.