Biopolitics and wildlife photographic representation

This communication examines contemporary wildlife photographic representations in the context of the current environmental crisis. Scientists and academics acknowledge the urgency of the rapidly deteriorating situation, but how is this awareness expressed in our visual representation of nature, and specifically of animals? Today, the proliferation of wildlife photography competitions attests to an increasing interest in wildlife imagery, as does the avidity with which their prize-winning photographs - mostly plastic images obtained by impressive technical skills - are shared on the Internet. The present study investigates the meanings and the biases embedded in the winning images from the last five editions of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year, organized by London's Natural History Museum. In 2019, the contest comprised 16 different categories and received 48,000 entries. For the sake of clarity, we will analyze only photographs of animals, aiming to elucidate the social-political discourses behind the uniformity of these images. The study explores a trend in which human behaviors are transposed to animals' gestures and facial expressions, and questions whether these representations are relevant to overcoming the current ecological crisis.