The Price of Oil: 2011 Wildlife Photographer of the Year

By Sarah Jost

One typically cold and grey February morning while I was studying abroad in London in 2007, I walked past the Natural History Museum on my way to nowhere in particular. I spent a lot of time that spring exploring London on foot, and usually without any specific destination. But this was no ordinary day (as if any in London ever are.) On that fateful morning I learned two things that would change my life forever: that most museums in London are free to the public, and that every year since 1965 the Natural History Museum and BBC Wildlife Magazine have been conducting a Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.

As a result of these discoveries, I came to know every museum in London inside and out, and have now seen the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit four times, twice in London and once each in Washington, D.C. and Sydney, Australia. The exhibit is truly one of my favorite things in the world and perfectly combines my love of animals and nature with an interest in photography and a deep appreciation for artistic works. Made up of over 100 winning photographs, the exhibit is enchanting and enthralling. Rarely is the vastness and awe-inspiring beauty of the planet and its inhabitants so apparent.

Loving this exhibition as I do, you can imagine my excitement to find it on display at Sydney’s Australian Museum during my visit earlier this month. After a good two hours perusing and thoroughly enjoying the photographs, I was about to move on to the museum’s other much-anticipated attraction, an entire floor of sparkly, shiny gemstones, when I realized there were a few photographs displayed in a hallway that I had missed. It was then that I discovered the photography of Daniel Beltra.

Winner of both the 2011 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award and the 2011 Wildlife Photojournalist Award, Spanish born Daniel Beltra is a world-renowned conservation photographer whose works often showcase both natural beauty and human impact on the environment.  Beltra has been a photographer for Greenpeace and his images have been published in such prestigious publications are The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, Le Monde, and El Pais.

For the Wildlife Photojournalist Award, Beltra had to submit ‘a memorable story told in six images.’  The story Beltra chose to tell was that of the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Spill, which he spent two months photographing in 2010. Included in that six photograph portfolio entitled The price of oil is the one for which Beltra won the competition’s biggest prize: Wildlife Photographer of the Year. The winning image shows eight pelicans at a temporary bird-rescue facility in Fort Jackson, Louisiana. According to Beltra, ‘Crude oil trickles off the feathers of the rescued brown pelicans, turning the white lining sheets into a sticky, stinking mess. The pelicans are going through the first stage of cleaning. They’ve already been sprayed with a light oil to break up the heavy crude trapped in their feathers.’

The following are the remaining five photographs that completed Beltra’s submission for the Wildlife Photojournalist Award.

Beltra’s win in both categories has been lauded as a move towards a more environmentally active and conservation-minded stance by the competition.

You can view more of Daniel Beltra’s photography on his website.

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition is now on display at museums and galleries around the world. Click here to learn more about the competition and here to find a location near you.