The Nature Conservancy (TNC) announces the outstanding works in each category of the TNC Photo Contest 2022.
The TNC Photo Contest is an annual photography competition organized by The Nature Conservancy, divided into six categories: landscape, water, climate, wildlife, plants and fungi, and people and nature. This year, the event attracted over 100,000 submissions from 196 countries and territories. The outstanding photos were announced and shared on Insider on November 19. In the photo, a water channel appears like a tree growing beside a highway in the Tibet Autonomous Region. The channel formed and expanded due to erosion caused by rainwater, captured by photographer Li Ping from China, who won the Grand Prize.
The photo of a young vervet monkey desperately clinging to its mother’s body beneath the jaws of a leopard won the Award chosen by Guest Judge Ami Vitale. The work was captured by photographer Shafeeq Mulla at South Luangwa National Park in Zambia.
Judge Coyote Peterson’s Award – an American wildlife educator and YouTuber – honored photographer Florian Ledoux with a photo of a female polar bear nursing her two cubs inside an abandoned settlement on the Svalbard archipelago of Norway. “The composition and color balance of the photo are beautiful. First, the eye is drawn to these elements, and then you realize the focal point is the mother polar bear and her cubs. The abandonment of the settlement by humans is a powerful statement that nature can reclaim its rightful place despite the chaos we leave behind. For a species like the polar bear, which is losing habitat due to continuous melting sea ice, the courage that the mother bear shows in finding shelter for her cubs is a heartwarming sight amidst the cold landscape,” Peterson commented.
Trees appear to be cloaked in a white layer on the beautiful steep slopes of Mount Adi in Navarra, Spain. This image, captured by photographer Francisco Javier Munuera González, won in the Landscape category.
American photographer Kristin Wright was honored in the Water category for her work depicting the Þjórsá River, the longest river in Iceland, flowing into the ocean. The striking orange in the frame is created by sediment.
A fan-throated lizard stands guard over its territory on the Chalkewadi Plateau in Satara, with one of the largest wind farms in the area in the background. This photo, captured by Sandesh Kadur, won in the Climate category.
This photograph taken by photographer Anup Shah at the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya shows an old male lion (on the right) leaning against a much younger companion. He is one of the “four musketeers” that have long ruled the Maasai Mara. The work won in the Wildlife category.
A ghost fungus known scientifically as Omphalotus Nidiformis stands out in the forests of Australia as night falls due to its bioluminescent properties. This work by photographer Callie Chee won in the Plants and Fungi category.
Beachgoers stand next to a giant factory encroaching on the beach in Greece. This work by photographer Janusz Jurek features a simple yet symbolically significant scene, highly rated in the People and Nature category.
