Mangrove Photography Awards

Charlie Hamilton James

NatGeo Photographer

One of India’s most accomplished nature and wildlife photographers, Dhritiman Mukherjee is an explorer, wanderer and a conservationist. In the last twenty years, he has pushed his limits as a photographer to do work that is compelling as well as scientifically essential.
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He has won innumerable awards for his vibrant images. But the accolades that he holds most dear are the Carl Zeiss Conservation, the RBS Earth Hero award and the Kirloskar Vasundhara Mitra award. His work has been published in some of the most respected websites and publications like BBC, National Geographic Traveller, Lonely Planet, Biographic, New York Times and many more. He spends almost 300 days every year out in the jungles and diving in the oceans all over the world and there is no other life he’d ever choose.

Daisy Gillardini

Conservation Photographer

Daisy Gilardini is a conservation photographer who specializes in the Polar Regions, with a particular emphasis on Antarctic wildlife and North American bears.
She is a member of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) and the SeaLegacy Collective, a fellow of the New York-based Explorers Club, and member of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. Daisy’s images have been published internationally in leading magazines such as National Geographic, BBC Wildlife, Canadian Geographic, Nature’s Best and Outdoor Photography. Her images have also been used by high-profile NGOs such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund, among others. Since 2018, she has been a photographer in residence with Canadian Geographic and she is has been nominated Greenpeace Antarctic Ambassador.
Her childhood passion for the natural world has evolved into a lifelong commitment to spread the message of conservation and the need to preserve what's left of the world’s remaining wild places.

Christian Ziegler

Natural History Photojournalist

Christian Ziegler is a photojournalist & filmmaker specializing in natural history and science-related topics. He works for Max-Planck Institute for Animal Behaviour in Konstanz as an outreach photographer. He is a regular contributor to National Geographic magazine, and has been widely published in other magazines like GEO. Christian’s aim is to highlight species and ecosystems under threat and share their beauty, and importance with a broad audience. A tropical ecologist by training, he has worked in tropical rain forests on four continents, and for 12 years was Associate for Communications with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama. He is a Canon Ambassador and a founding fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP.com). Christian's work has been awarded prizes in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year and the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year competitions, and in 2017, he was honoured with the Outstanding Nature Photographer award by the North American Nature Photography Association. He has also won four World Press awards in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016. Christian lives with his wife Daisy Dent and two kids, Freya and Benjamin, at the edge of a rain forest national park in central Panama for part of the year. For the rest of the year they live in southern Germany, from where he starts his adventures around the world.
www.christianziegler.photography

Mac Stone

Conservation Photographer

Mac Stone grew up exploring the springs, swamps, and hammocks of North Central Florida where he developed a passion for photography at a young age. His work focuses on America's swamps in an attempt to change public opinion towards our country’s wetlands. After spending five years living and working in the Everglades watershed, he released a 304-page coffee table book about the heralded River of Grass. Everglades: America's Wetland, published by University Press of Florida and is now in its second printing. In March of 2015 he delivered his first TED talk, which has now been viewed over 1 million times. Stone is a National Geographic explorer, a senior fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers, a Sea Legacy fellow, and is also the executive director of Naturaland Trust, a non-profit that permanently protects critical lands in the upstate of South Carolina.

Emily Garthwaite

Humanitarian & Environmental Photojournalist

Emily Garthwaite is an award-winning photojournalist, Forbes 30 Under 30, Leica Ambassador and storyteller focusing on humanitarian and environmental stories. Emily’s work weaves together themes of shared humanity, religion, coexistence with the natural world and displacement. She has a Masters in Documentary Photography and Photojournalism from the University of Westminster and lives in Iraq. Since 2017, Emily has walked over 650km through Iraq photographing its land and people in order to share untold stories of contemporary Iraq. She has worked in and walked across the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to document how airstrikes and landmines contribute to the destruction of tangible and intangible cultural heritage for Article 36, a Nobel Peace Prize-winning specialist non-profit organisation focused on reducing harm from weapons. In 2020, Emily walked 200km across the Zagros mountains in south-west Iran to document the customs of the Bakhtiari tribe during their bi-annual migration known as Kooch. In 2021, Emily will be implementing grant funding from The Amersi Foundation, ALIPH Foundation and The Abraham Path Initiative to explore heritage and environmental stories across Iraq, Turkey and Syria. Emily is HEFAT trained [2020] and available for assignments worldwide. She has exhibited her work internationally, including at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland as well as the Leica Mayfair Gallery, South Bank Centre and The Natural History Museum in London. Her work has been published by The Guardian, WeTransfer, Smithsonian Magazine, Vanity Fair, The Sunday Times Magazine, BBC News, EuroNews, Forbes, SUITCASE Magazine, Leica Camera and i-D Magazine

Dhritiman Mukherjee

Wildlife Photographer

One of India’s most accomplished nature and wildlife photographers, Dhritiman Mukherjee is an explorer and wanderer. In the last twenty years, he has pushed his limits as a photographer to do work that is compelling as well as scientifically essential.He has trekked the highest reaches of the Himalayas in search of the elusive snow leopard, spent years tracking down the brown bear, was the first photographer to shoot the Western tragopan in the wild. He has climbed volcanos in Congo to shoot active lava lakes and paraglided in the Himalayas to photograph vultures in flight. His work has taken him from the Arctic to Antarctica to photograph underwater ice formations and polar life and to the depths of frozen Lake Baikal Siberia to photograph seals.

He has dived in the underwater caves in Mexico, swum through the streams of Brazil to shoot the anaconda and photographed the American crocodile up close. He has spent months crouched on wet rainforest floors in search of the tiniest creatures.He has won innumerable awards for his vibrant images (Natures Best USA, BBC WPY, DJMPC and many more). But the accolades that he holds most dear are the Carl Zeiss Conservation, the RBS Earth Hero award and the Kirloskar Vasundhara Mitra award.His work has been published in some of the most respected websites and publications like BBC Wildlife, National Geographic Traveller, Lonely Planet, Biographic, New York Times and many more. He has co-authored the book Magical Biodiversity of India and was one of the co-founders of nature and wildlife magazineSaevus. He was nominated as one of the jury members of the 6th National Award for photography by the Government of India.He spends almost 300 days every year out in the jungles and diving in the oceans all over the world and there is no other life he’d ever choose. Now he is Ambassador of RoundGlass and Sony Explorer

Camille Rivera

Marine Conservationist

Camille Rivera is a marine conservationist and a co-founder of Oceanus Conservation, a nonprofit environmental organization in the Philippines. She is a member of the Global Youth Biodiversity Network (GYBN), Youth in Landscapes Initiative (YIL), Climate Reality Leader, Coalition Wild Excelerator Ambassador and Restoration Steward for Wetlands awardee under Global Landscapes Forum (GLF). She received her Erasmus Mundus MSc in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation in Ghent University and further pursued with the Center of Excellence in Operational Oceanography in Helgoland, Germany. She has been involved in marine conservation for more than 6 years focusing on marine science research, youth and community education, capacity building, and mangrove conservation and management. She educated 700+ local youths and communities and led ocean youth camps about the marine ecosystems and recently created ocean storybooks that are translated into 3 local languages and 3 foreign languages.

Octavio Aburto

Conservation Photographer

Octavio is an Associate Professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), a conservation photographer, and a National Geographic Explorer. He obtained his PhD at the Center of Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at SIO, and was awarded the Katerhyn Fuller Fellowship, WWF-Science Program in 2010, the Conservation of Nature prize by the Mexican Ministry of the Environment – CONANP in 2014, received a Hellman Fellowship, for a Junior Faculty Research Project in 2015. His research and photographs have focused on marine reserves and commercially exploited marine species and their fisheries in Mexico, Latin America, and the U.S. A member of the International League of Conservation Photographers, Aburto seeks to combine his professional photography, videography, and research to highlight the importance of communicating local science to decision-makers, donors, and the general public.

Vatosoa Rakotondrazafy

Environmental Ambassador

Vatosoa Rakotondrazafy is Madagascar’s small-scale fishers’ Ambassador. She won the Whitley Award in 2019 for her work to enable those communities to exchange experiences and strengthen their capacity to manage their resources. She served as the National Coordinator of MIHARI - Madagascar’s Locally Managed Marine Areas Network for 6 years and she was elected President of the board of the Network in November 2020. During her time at MIHARI, she has organized around 10 small-scale fishers forums. Some of them included dialogues and advocacy around mangrove conservation policy and governance. She has also highly contributed to the empowerment of coastal communities involved in mangrove conservation. Vatosoa is now putting her coordination skills at the service of the Malagasy think tank INDRI with the task of building on existing conservation knowledge to safeguard Madagascar's unique marine and terrestrial biodiversity. Vatosoa is leading the Alamino initiative which is a national movement to generate collective action and brain power to re-green Madagascar including both terrestrial and mangrove forests.

Jillian Morris

Marine Biologist & Shark Conservationist

Born and raised in Maine, Jillian’s love for the ocean started at an early age and has continued to play an integral role in her adult life. She has spent thousands of hours in the field working and diving with sharks across the globe. She is a marine biologist, shark conservationist, scuba instructor, explorer and educator. She has filmed for numerous television shows and networks, has appeared on Shark Week, is a PADI Ambassadiver, was named Scuba Diving Magazine's July 2016 Sea Hero and was awarded the inaugural Shark Con Shark Hero Award in 2017. She is the author of Norman the Nurse Shark and Shark Super Powers and a member of the prestigious Ocean Artists Society.

Clemente Coelho Junior

Mangrove Biologist

Clemente Coelho Junior is a biologist from Brazil. He gained his degree and Master’s at the Oceanographic Institute of the University of São Paulo, developing research on ecology, restoration and analysis of tensors in mangrove ecosystems. Since 1987 he has been an environmental activist, and participated in several conservation actions in Brazilian biomes. In 2006 he co-founded BiomaBrasil Institute, an NGO based in Recife (Pernambuco), whose mission is: the conservation of biodiversity and rational use of natural resources in the Coastal Marine Zone, through activities of research, extension and in the formation of environmental citizenship. Since 2007 he has coordinated the Programa Guia Didactico, the Brazillian Marvellous Mangroves, in partnership with the Mangrove Action Project, having trained 600 teachers in 13 cities on the Brazilian coast. He supports marine life conservation projects, with an emphasis on the Manatee and traditional communities. He is an advisor to the National Wetlands Committee (Ramsar Convention).

About the Awards

The Mangrove Photography Awards celebrates the beauty, diversity and fragility of our mangrove forests around the world.

Charlie Hamilton James

NatGeo Photographer

Daisy Gillardini

Conservation Photographer

Christian Ziegler

Natural History Photojournalist

Mac Stone

Conservation Photographer

Emily Garthwaite

Humanitarian & Environmental Photojournalist

Camille Rivera

Marine Conservationist

Octavio Aburto

Conservation Photographer

Vatosoa Rakotondrazafy

Environmental Ambassador

Jillian Morris

Marine Biologist & Shark Conservationist

Clemente Coelho Junior

Mangrove Biologist

Award Categories

Meet the Judges

Meet the Ambassadors

Photo Stories

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