The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2021
It’s that time of year again – the annual Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards announce their shortlist for the 2021 competition. The finalists will exhibit their images for the first time ever at The Photography Show in the NEC in Birmingham between 18th-21st September, with winners of the various awards being announced on 22nd October.
The competition celebrates the amusement aspects of the natural world, while at the same time helping to promote conservation issues.
This year’s final shortlist of photographs showcases the biggest mix of animals seen in the competition to date. The final 42 images, plus the Portfolio and Video category entries from around the world include a laughing vine snake from India, a trio of strutting Gentoo penguins on the beaches of the Falkland Islands and a Kangaroo performing a picture-perfect Pavarotti impersonation in Australia.
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Warthog’s Bottom
While living in the mountains of East Africa, wildlife photographer Paul Joynson-Hicks MBE was looking through the pictures he had taken. Many of these images made Paul cackle with laughter, especially an image of an eagle looking at him through its back legs and a warthog’s bottom. Shortly after, Paul noticed how entertaining these images were and how they could positively impact the world of wildlife.
Subsequently, the awards launched in 2015 in a small office in Usa River on the slopes of Mount Meru in Tanzania. Since then, co-founder and fellow photographer Tom Sullam and Michelle Wood have been bought onto the board with the awards growing and gaining an increased amount of recognition each year. Now, the competition has been flooded with thousands of entries from wildlife photographers across the world and therefore able to contribute to the stunning range of wildlife on show. The competition has become a fixture on every photographer’s calendar.
“Our world is extraordinarily beautiful and interconnected, yet the human race is doing its best to over-exploit and damage it. Issues of wildlife conservation and sustainability are gaining momentum globally, yet the messages and images tend to be negative, depressing and enervating,” stated Paul Joyson-Hicks MBE.
“Through the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, we aim to widen understanding and engagement with global conservation – for the preservation of biodiversity and the health and enrichment of everyone on Earth.”
Entry is free and photographers can enter up to 10 images, four portfolio entries and a further six entries for the individual categories in the competition.
Survival
Engaging with the awards, either by entering the competition or sharing images on social media, can help educate people on wildlife issues. Each year, 10 percent of the total net revenue is donated towards different grass-roots conservation projects that aim to safeguard wildlife that are endangered. This year it will be donated towards the Gunung Palung Orang-utan Conservation Program in Borneo that strives to protect the surroundings that wild Orang-utans inhabit, so they can survive and live as long as possible.
