©Anil T Prabhakar

About the Awards

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

We invite photographers of all levels and disciplines to submit their best mangrove images to be judged by a panel of internationally acclaimed photographers. Now in its eighth year, Mangrove Photography Awards offers everyone the opportunity to raise their voices for the protection of one of our most critical and undervalued ecosystems. Your photos can illustrate the importance and diversity of life in our coastal forests and help inspire action to protect and conserve our mangrove ecosystems.

VIEW 2022 GALLERYVIEW 2021 WINNERS
Last year’s winning image
©Musfiqur Rahman
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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.

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.

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

June 24
Open for submissions
July 24
Entry deadline
July 26
World Mangrove Day gallery
October 17
Winners announced

Award Categories

The Mangrove Photography Awards consists of six categories that photographers can contribute their work to. Each category is broad in focus to allow the Awards to be as inclusive as possible whilst encouraging the contribution of impactful and bold imagery. There will be 6 winners and runner’s up for each category, an overall winner, the Mangrove Photographer of the Year, and a Young Mangrove Photographer of the Year for photographers under the age of 21. Our judges are looking forward to viewing your special mangrove captures and stories. The deadline for this year’s submissions is July 22nd, 2022. 

Previous Winners & Finalists
2019 Runner Up // Janos Leo G. Andanar,
Mangrove Fairies, Philippines
2019 Winner // Enrico Marone,
Mangrove Crab Fisherman, Brazil
2020 Winner // Victor Hugo Luja,
Once Again Being a Mother, Mexico
Shelter – Shane Gross, Bahamas
2021 Category Winner, Shane Gross,
Shelter, Bahamas
A Walk through the Mangroves - Akbar, UAE
2021 Highly Commended // Akbar,
A walk through the mangrove, UAE
2021 Category Runner Up // Melodi Roberts,
Mangroves at Dawn, USA
2021 Highly Commended // Shane Gross,
Destroyed Habitat, USA
2020 Highly Commended // Janos Leo G. Andanar,
Mangrove Maze, Philippines
2020 Category Winner // Morgan Bennett-Smith,
Coastal Community, Papua New Guineae
2020 Category Winner // Jenny Stock,
Welcome Grin, Cuba
Adaptation of the Bengal Tiger – Arijit Das, India
2021 Category Winner // Arijit Das,
Adaptation of Bengal Tiger, India
Mark Kevin Badayos, Philippines
Garbage on Mangroves

Meet the Judges

Beverly Joubert
Wildlife Photographer & Filmmaker
Beverly Joubert is a world famous, award-winning filmmaker, photographer, conservationists and a National Geographic Explorer. She co-founded the Big Cats Initiative with her husband Dereck and together they have produced over 35 films for National Geographic, with 22 Emmy nominations and 8 Emmy Awards. She co-founded Great Plains Conservation that manages over 1.5 million acres of conservation land in Africa. One of the major missions was to rescue rhinos from the highest poaching zones in Africa to safer areas over 4 years have now relocated 87adult rhinos and the great success is that 62 calves have been born in the wild. Another important initiative is creating Project Ranger during the pandemic, to keep rangers in the field to help avoid a second pandemic through poaching. All about Sponsoring a ranger, stopping a poacher and saving a species.
Dhritiman Mukherjee
Conservation 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.

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.
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.
Bertie Gregory
Wildlife filmmaker
Bertie is a 27-year-old wildlife cameraman, presenter, and a photographer at heart. Bertie cares deeply about the natural world and each of his films reflect this by carrying a strong conservation message and he hopes he can activate change by reaching millions of viewers.

He splits his time between producing/hosting for National Geographic and shooting behind the camera as a cinematographer for the BBC's David Attenborough series. He has filmed extensively for their landmark series Planet Earth 2, Wild Cities and Seven Worlds, One Planet. BAFTA and Webby winner.
Nadia Aly
Marine Photographer & Filmmaker
Nadia Aly is an award-winning wildlife photographer, & filmmaker with a focus on underwater marine life. Her primary goal is to educate people globally, about the diverse populations of sea creatures that exist in our oceans. She captures their beauty and uniqueness with her camera and then publishes these photographs and videos. She does this in an effort to raise awareness and interest in supporting efforts to conserve our oceans and their inhabitants.

Meet the Ambassadors

Dhritiman Mukherjee
Wildlife Photographer
Camille Rivera
Marine Conservationist
Octavio Aburto
Conservation Photographer
Vatosoa Rakotondrazafy
Environmental Ambassador
Jillian Morris
Marine Biologist &
Shark Conservationist
Clemente
Coelho Junior
Mangrove Biologist

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