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Sony World Photography Awards 2021: A whale to wonder

2021-03-02T04:22:20.530Z


The portrait of a touching friendship between humans and animals made it onto the shortlist at the Sony World Photography Awards. Just like chimpanzees on a plane. And a German subway station.


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A place of longing in the north: the sea too cold for swimming, the mountains too steep for ... well, if you wanted, you could climb there.

Despite - or perhaps because of - its ruggedness, the Lofoten Islands are one of those places that make you wanderlust.

With this photo, the German photographer Marc Hennige landed on the shortlist at the Sony World Photography Awards.

More than 330,000 images in ten categories were submitted to the competition.

Photo: Marc Hennige / Sony World Photography Awards

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In the north of Norway, in the waters of Vesterålen, this picture of whale Hvaldimir was also taken.

Do you think you've seen this beautiful animal before?

Right.

The white beluga became famous in April 2019.

After he was spotted near Hammerfest, Norwegian fisherman Joar Hesten had released him from a strap that was tied around his body - an event that was reported in media around the world.

The whale with the friendly creature was at times suspected of working for the Russian secret service.

Where it ultimately came from is still unclear today.

Photo: Aleksander Nordahl / Sony World Photography Awards

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One thing is certain: he has been traveling off the northern Norwegian coast for around two years, swims from fish farm to fish farm and feeds on leftovers there.

"Unfortunately," says the Norwegian photographer Aleksander Nordahl.

"It's dangerous for the whale, he gets injured on the boats that go there." Hvaldimir's liberator, the fisherman Hesten, regularly checks on the beluga and tries to protect it as best as possible.

"The whale has changed its feelings," says photographer Nordahl.

Hesten used to be a whaler.

The story is also something special for the photographer who takes all of his underwater photos while freediving - that is, while holding his breath.

In 30 years of career, meeting Hvaldimir was one of those jobs that he will never forget, said Nordahl.

The jury placed it on the shortlist in the "Wildlife" category.

Photo: 

Aleksander Nordahl / Sony World Photography Awards

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Fyodor Savintsev is among the finalists in the »Landscape« category - with photographs from the Russian peninsula of Kamchatka.

He traveled to the region in autumn when there was no snow covering the volcanoes.

The fox with its orange-red appearance would have been an eye-catcher even on white, but the black lava stone obviously enhances the glowing effect of the fur.

Photo: Fyodor Savintsev / Sony World Photography Awards

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The leaves of the trees, which had already turned a bright yellow, stand out strongly against the black of the landscape.

Savintsev was out and about in eastern Russia for two weeks, taking photos at any time of the day and in any weather.

"I fell completely in love with this beauty," says the photographer.

He wanted to portray the volcanic region as a living organism - and wants to travel to Kamchatka again this year.

Photo: Fyodor Savintsev / Sony World Photography Awards

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Rough but calm: You can't see any waves in Marvin Gray's pictures, even though the sea was probably not that smooth at the time the photos were taken.

He visited the Japanese island of Hokkaido in winter, the season of cold and blizzards.

In order to give the pictures a touch of minimalism, Gray claims to have exposed five minutes and longer.

In doing so, he reduced "distracting elements" such as rippled water.

Photo: Marvin Gray / Sony World Photography Awards

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Tiny windows, a door pointing towards the mountain - and otherwise just a lot of wood in the corner structure: everyone who has ever been to the Alps has seen such huts.

The Swiss photographer Karin Nutzi-Weisz took a special look at them.

She took a whole series of pictures of these barns, Schüpfen or Maiensäss, as they are also called.

They used to offer animals a shelter in the summer, today they are used less and less.

Nutzi-Weisz has documented the slow decline and was shortlisted in the "Architecture" category at the Sony World Photography Awards.

Photo: Karin Nuetzi-Weisz / Sony World Photography Awards

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Turquoise tones on the Turtmann Glacier: The glaciers are not threatened by the decline of time, but by a climate catastrophe.

“When I took these pictures of impressive ice formations, I didn't think that they would have disappeared a week later,” writes Swiss photographer Niklas Eschenmoser on Instagram.

But that's how it happened, as he reports: At the beginning of August, a lot of ice broke apart, the upper part of the glacier was separated from the lower.

"Another sign that glaciers are melting in record time and will soon disappear completely." With his pictures, Eschenmoser wants to show future generations the ephemeral beauty of the glaciers that once formed the Alps.

He sees his photo series as an "homage to the landscape that I have come to love".

Photo: Niklas Eschenmoser / Sony World Photography Awards

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The Munich subway network has done Arvind Jayashankar.

The photographer from Belgium loves to wait underground for the right moment to capture the symmetry of the train stations.

Best of all without people.

"You can make some things disappear in post-production," says Jayashankar.

But patterns and lines like this make it difficult. So he prefers to wait patiently for the perfect opportunity - and then press the shutter release.

Photo: Arvind Jayashankar / Sony World Photography Awards

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Watch out, monkeys on board!

These two chimpanzees were lucky in misery.

They were rescued by animal rights activists and then taken to the Lwiro Primate Rehabilitation Center, a kind of rearing station for great apes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The trade in game meat is a major threat to animals in the Congo Basin.

Adult monkeys are shot, the babies are offered for sale.

It is estimated that only one in ten chimpanzees can be saved, says South African photojournalist Brent Stirton.

He portrayed the rescuers by accompanying them in their dedicated work for the animals.

Stirton was honored for the project with a shortlist in the "Wildlife" category.

Photo: Brent Stirton / Sony World Photography Awards

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Very close: the Northern Irish photographer Graeme Purdy succeeded in his impressive wildlife shots by operating his camera with wide angle via wireless shutter release.

It is of course far too dangerous to get too close to animals like these cheetahs.

So you have to be inventive, says Purdy.

His goal: from this perspective "to show the pure beauty and power of the wilderness".

His hope: that people will learn to appreciate nature more - and therefore want to protect it.

Photo: Graeme Purdy / Sony World Photography Awards

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Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2021-03-02

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