Wildlife Photographer of the Year opens in Christchurch on 7 November

By Daniel Okafor

A 100-photograph Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition will open at the Canterbury Museum Pop-Up in Christchurch on 7 November, only weeks after the Natural History Museum opened the same show in London.

The works arrive direct and express from London and remain on loan from the Natural History Museum. That makes the Christchurch presentation part of the exhibition’s international circulation, not a separately curated local show.

What does a record entry field reveal?

The 62nd Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition received 65,403 entries from 121 countries, according to the exhibition announcement. A panel of experts selected 100 photographs from that record field.

The organiser describes the competition and exhibition as world-renowned and calls the event the most prestigious nature photography event of its kind. That is the institution’s claim, and the announcement supplies no independent comparison or judging criteria.

The 62nd year gives the annual event continuity, but longevity alone does not settle the standard of selection. Even so, scale establishes reach, not quality. Judging photographs from subject descriptions alone risks mistaking dramatic wildlife for rigorous craft; the announcement offers no rubric or score data.

The institutional gamble is clear: judged entries must work twice, first as competition submissions and then as gallery encounters. No installation views accompany the announcement, so the exhibition’s sequencing and scale cannot be judged.

What will visitors see?

The selected batch includes three immediately legible encounters:

• a polar bear peering into an ice hole as it searches for a seal snack;
• a chameleon enduring a sandstorm in the Namib Desert; and
• a black bear cooling off in a backyard swimming pool in California.

Only the polar-bear photograph comes with a named maker and title in the announcement. It does not identify the photographers of the chameleon or swimming-pool images, so their framing, sequence and technical decisions cannot be judged from this notice.

It also omits print dimensions, medium and fuller captions, details that matter when an exhibition asks visitors to read images as photographs rather than merely animal encounters.

How was “Icy Window” made?

Norwegian photographer Audun Rikardsen found bear tracks beside a hole in the Arctic sea ice north of Svalbard. Seals surface through these holes for air, but the passage becomes dangerous when hungry polar bears gather nearby.

Rikardsen put an underwater camera with a motion sensor in the hole and waited. Eight hours later, a bear triggered the camera, producing the photograph he titled Icy Window.

The technique served the encounter rather than dictating it. The hole works like a trapdoor in the frozen sea, a functional opening that briefly links seal, bear and sensor in one frame.

The announcement calls the result striking but does not reproduce the image or describe its crop, exposure or final edit. Those omissions limit any firm assessment of how successfully the camera’s view became a photograph, rather than a record of an animal passing a mechanism.

What do the jury and museums claim?

Kathy Moran, chair of the competition jury, said: “Every year I think the entries to our competition can’t get any stronger and every year I am proven wrong! These images pave the way for a deepened appreciation and commitment to our natural world.”

Her claim that images can deepen commitment is plausible, but it is also the competition’s argument for its own value. The stronger test is what the photographs make viewers notice, question and carry out of the gallery.

Dr Doug Gurr, director of the Natural History Museum, described this year’s selections as truly extraordinary. He said the show offers visitors an encounter with the planet through talented photographers and, amid mounting pressure on nature, a reminder of both what is at stake and what remains worth protecting.

Gurr also argued that it would be impossible for visitors to leave without renewed wonder for the planet. That is a museum director’s interpretation, not evidence that visitors leave with renewed commitment. The exhibition may supply wonder; whether it changes conduct is less measurable.

Anthony Wright, Canterbury Museum Tumuaki Matua/Director, said: “Cantabrians love Wildlife Photographer of the Year and we are delighted to bring the latest exhibition to Waitaha Canterbury so soon after the opening at the Natural History Museum in London.”

His statement confirms local enthusiasm in general terms, though the announcement supplies no attendance figures or evidence of how many people saw earlier iterations.

When can Christchurch see it?

• Venue: Canterbury Museum Pop-Up, 66 Gloucester Street, Christchurch.
• Dates: 7 November to 26 April.
• Opening hours: 9.00 am to 5.30 pm.
• Admission: Free, with donations appreciated.

Free admission removes a price barrier, but the announcement gives no detail about accessibility, opening-day events or accompanying talks. It also does not name a curatorial team or describe how the London selection will be contextualised for a Christchurch audience.

The immediate institutional test is whether a free run from 7 November to 26 April can turn a tightly judged visiting show into sustained public attention in Christchurch. The record field establishes scale; the photographs still have to do the harder work.