Wildlife Photographer of the Year: Portfolio 11

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Pictures without Insights
Review: The Wildlife Photographer of the Year is an annual publication of the BBC. It includes the winning pictures from the BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, which is sponsored by the Natural History Museum (of London), BBC Wildlife Magazine and BG Group.

Thousands of photographs are submitted by wildlife photographers from all over the world, from which a panel of distinguished judges selects winners, runners-up and commended pictures, as well as one overall winner. The categories include various classes like animal behavior, composition and form, and animal portraits. Those familiar with nature photographers will recognize many of the competitors' names, like Thomas Mangelsen, Arthur Morris, Patricio Robles Gil and Norbert Wu.

Each photographer includes a short comment about the circumstances of the picture's capture. Photographer-readers will like the fact that technical data is provided for each photo. Almost every one of the pictures is quite beautiful and some are quite astounding. Although I was quite familiar with Joe McDonald's picture of a lion killing a buffalo, I still shuddered when I saw the lion's death grip and the terror in the buffalo's eyes. Andy Rouse's picture of a roe deer buck peering at us from a field of chest high red flowers is lovely.

Each of the pictures in the volume can stand by itself as a worthy photo. My problem is that the pictures, by the nature of the contest, don't hang together as a book. Photographs in a book on a single subject or by a single photographer have a synergistic effect. We learn more about the animal or the photographer's vision than any one picture can convey. That is totally lacking in this book, with the exception of the short portfolio by Vincent Munier that won the award for photographers aged 26 years or under.

People who love wildlife pictures will not be disappointed by this book. On the other hand, they may want to consider subscribing to a magazine like "Nature's Best", published quarterly by the Nature's Best Foundation. There is a contest issue with pictures by many of the same photographers as enter the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, AND the three other issues contain extensive portfolios by a individual photographers, usually on a single subject.