photo: © Matjaz Krivic, Pejeta Conservancy, Nanyuki, Kenya, Travel Photographer of the Year 2022, winner/TPOTY.com
Slovenian photographer Matjaz Krivic has won the title International Travel Photographer of the Year 2022 (TPOTY). Nearly 20,000 photos from photographers from 154 countries have been submitted to the annual competition.
The images of 33-year-old Najin - one of the world's last two remaining northern white rhinos - and her keeper, Zachary Mutai, at Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya, are both heartwarming and almost unbearably poignant.
Matjaz's other images showing the effects of the long-term eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma in the Canary Islands are a stark reminder of the power of nature.
Matjaz Krivic - Pejeta Conservancy, Nanyuki, Kenya (winning photo):
Najin, 33, is one of the last two northern white rhinos left in the world resting under a hot afternoon sun with her friend and caretaker Zachary Mutai in the Ol Pejeta reserve. This rhino is almost extinct. The last two males died several years ago. The two females are still alive, but too weak to give birth to babies. In an Italian laboratory, their eggs are now artificially fertilized by the sperm of the deceased males and kept at minus 196 Celsius, in the hope that rhinos of another species can carry them. (Canon 5D mk IV, 100mm 2.8 Canon L lens, f8, 1/1000s, ISO 100)
Tacande, La Palma, Spain: images of a destroyed mountainside with a single tree able to withstand the lava flow.
The eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma is the longest lasting volcanic eruption on the island. Huge rivers of lava and vast amounts of continuously falling volcanic ash have transformed this Spanish holiday paradise. Seven thousand people were evacuated, more than seventeen hundred buildings were destroyed by the volcano. Strong earthquakes and permanent tremors traumatized the local population.
Photo below:
Katy Gomez Catalina, Spain, Southeast Cameroon:
A small, graceful figure emerges from the jungle, a faint splash of color in a disappearing world. For thousands of years, Baka pygmies have lived in harmony with the magnificent jungles of southeastern Cameroon, but within a generation much of their unique lifestyle will be gone forever due to deforestation and industrial interests, the policies of sedentarization and conservation of protected areas that forced them to leave their traditional lives behind. (Sony ILCE-7M3, 24-105mm lens, f8, 1/50s, ISO 6400)
Matjaz Krivic is a documentary photographer who captures long-term stories of people and places. For twenty-five years he has been capturing the face of the earth in his intense, personal and aesthetically moving style, portraying poor parts of the world characterized by traditions, social unrest and religious devotion. In recent years, his work has focused on environmental issues and acts as an advocate for a greener future.
His work and multimedia projects have been exhibited in galleries, museums, open-air exhibitions in Slovenia and around the world, at international photo festivals such as La Gacilly Photo, Les Rencontres d'Arles and Visa pour l'image, and widely published around the world by numerous national and international media including Wired, Boston Globe, Geo, Guardian, Stern, Spiegel, Le Figaro, Le Monde, Newsweek, GQ, Internationale, D-La Repubblica, Wall Street Journal, Forbes and many others. Krivic has won several prestigious awards, including World Press Photo, Picture of the Year International and Lens Culture.
Art of Monochrome
The Art of Monochrome Portfolio category was won by the Israeli photographer Roie Galitz, for a portfolio shot in Svalbard featuring two starkly contrasting images of polar bears: one, a magical and rare glimpse of a polar bear's courtship during a snowstorm, the other featuring an emaciated, starving polar bear mother and her two cubs; the cubs died a few days after the photo was taken.
The 'beetle's eye view' of the American photographer Dana Allen, which looks up at an African elephant, won the award for best single image in this category.
Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe: An African elephant among the herd. (Nikon D4, Nikon 28-300mm lens, f16, 1/500s, ISO 800)
The price of Matjaz Krivic includes the new Fujifilm X100V camera, a £1000 cash prize from TPOTY, a personalized leather portfolio book or iFolio from Plastic Sandwich, Radiant Photo imaging software, membership of the Royal Photographic Society, and Tonic magazine.
All submitted photos were judged by an international panel of highly experienced photographers and experts in the field. All judging was done 'blind' - the judges do not know the identity or nationality of the participants - and the finalist must provide the RAW/original image files for the final judging stage.
The winning photos - all of which can be viewed in the online Winners' Gallery at tpoty.com - will be on display in a spectacular, free-to-view outdoor exhibition in Bristol, England in May and will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from 1 to 31 May 2023. The exhibition is part of 'World Photography in Focus', featuring Travel Photographer of the Year, Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Food Photographer of the Year will all exhibit in May 2023. It promises to be a celebration of international photography.
