60 Years of Wildlife Photographer of the Year: How Wildlife Photography Became Art

by Rosamund Kidman Cox

Genres: Nature, Art, Photography

336 pages, Hardcover

Published October 8, 2024

Reviews

[Lizzy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing. The texts is breathless and hyperbolic. The art is obviously wonderful, and the history of wildlife photography was interesting. However, this giant time is an beast to read just due to sheer heft. It also talks about technological advancements without considering the impacts of wildlife photography. For such a retrospective, it would be worthwhile to note how wildlife photography affects and/or contributes to ecotourism, wildlife harassment, resource use etc. So many photographers have these insane cameras with complicated lens and rigs and there’s also the social element of competing— if required a certain amount of money and leisure time. Would have been more interesting to talk about actual positive and negative impacts of wildlife photography and the ethics. Also, the categories here are pretty straightforward and if you regularly read these books as they come out, there’s not a whole lot new. Hoped for more discussion and highlighting of trends over time —it’s here a bit but this is still just a massive coffee table book.

[Joseph Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although not every single photograph is of wildlife there are many extraordinary photos in this book. There are sections devoted to black and white, underwater, nighttime, close ups and just general, but extraordinary, photos. The section on endangerment and extinction did remind me of the carbon footprint required to secure these photos and the many others that did not win recognition. The Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition must burn a lot of carbon.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

A disappointment.
I wish the author had limited the captions to the photographers entry information, what's in the photo, what category it was in and any prize won. Telling us why the photo is a good photo and why it's important as if we can't work it out for ourselves got old very quickly.
(also didn't like terms like blessed, heavens, meant to be etc used in a nature book...)
And why would you end the book on the most depressing category??? There's not even a paragraph of conclusion.

[Peter Tillman]

WSJ's short review: https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/book...
"This 60-year visual history captures the interaction of human and animal, viewer and subject—a bird against bright water, a polar bear dwarfed by glaciers, the eyes of a wolf almost out of sight—and sweeps us up in the great natural tapestry of life."

[MKF · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some landscape scenes that doesn't include any animals in them.

[Lyla · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess I didn’t actually read this entire book, but I can say that what I did get from it was amazing! The pictures in here were absolutely incredible and I loved looking through them.