This uncommon nature {photograph} doesn’t even present the animal it represents – but it surely received an award. Angel Fitor explains {a photograph} two months within the making
This uncommon nature {photograph} doesn’t even present the animal it represents – but it surely received an award. Angel Fitor explains {a photograph} two months within the making
Images is a language that requires no phrases – however for photographer Angel Fitor, the digicam is a software to translate the language of nature. The photographer took the highest honors on the 2025 Environmental Images Awards for an underwater picture of burrowing worms flushing out their burrows, creating what seems to be like a miniature sand “volcano.”
The Environmental Images Awards, hosted by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Basis, awarded Fitor the Grand Prize within the contest for the picture, together with a class award winner and two shortlisted pictures.
“We environmental photographers have a easy but colossal activity: to translate the language of nature,” he mentioned. “The pure world is in fact an countless supply of magnificence and fascination, however the mission of visible story telling goes additional to be able to reveal the hidden threads that weave the advanced and fragile relationships that bind our personal existence to the planet.”
The burrowing worms cleansing out their burrows within the {photograph} play a pivotal function within the Mediterranean marine ecosystem, the photographer mentioned. The oxygen and vitamins that the worm’s burrows assist create an ecosystem beneath the substrate, selling biodiversity on the seafloor.
Whereas the worms’ influence on the ecosystem is huge, predicting when the worms would blast the sand out of the burrows was a problem. Fitor spent two months on the challenge, together with twenty dives of 5 hours every.
Fitor’s picture of child loggerhead sea turtles at a restoration heart in Spain additionally received the Change Makers: Causes for Hope class. The picture reveals a child turtle, rescued as an egg from a crowded vacationer seashore, going after its first-ever jellyfish.
Together with the Change Makers class, this yr’s contest additionally awarded prizes for Polar Wonders, Into the Forest, Ocean Worlds, and Humanity vs. Nature.
The most effective digicam offers, opinions, product recommendation, and unmissable images information, direct to your inbox!
Picture 1 of 13
‘Jellyfish and Iceberg’ by Galice Horau. Winner of the Polar Wonders class. A lion’s mane jellyfish swims previous an iceberg in Greenland, 2019(Picture credit score: Galice Hoarau / Environmental Images Awards)
‘Ephemeral’ by Michaël Arzur. Runner-up within the Polar Wonders class. An iceberg drifting on the Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon, Iceland, 2024(Picture credit score: Michaël Arzur / Environmental Images Awards)
‘Feminine Combat’ by Miquel Angel Artús Illana. Runner-up within the Polar Wonders class. A combat between two feminine musk oxen, Norway, 2021(Picture credit score: Miquel Angel Artús Illana / Environmental Images Awards)
Conflict of Kings’ by Iacopo Nerozzi. Winner of the ‘Into the Forest’ class. Fight between two male stag beetles, Italy, 2022(Picture credit score: Iacopo Nerozzi / Environmental Images Awards)
Coho Salmon in a Log Construction’ by David Herasimtschuk. Runner-up within the ‘Into the Forest’ class. Coho Salmon and fry, USA, 2023(Picture credit score: David Herasimtschuk / Environmental Images Awards)
God within the Shadows’ by Santiago J. Monroy García. Runner-up within the ‘Into the Forest’ class. An Andean bear, Colombia, 2023(Picture credit score: Santiago J. Monroy García / Environmental Images Awards)
The Passenger’ by Pietro Formis. Runner-up within the ‘Ocean Worlds’ class. A paper nautilus perched on a gaggle of salps, Philippines, 2024(Picture credit score: Pietro Formis / Environmental Images Awards)
Portrait of a Leafy Seadragon’ by Daniel Sly. Runner-up within the ‘Ocean Worlds’ class. A Leafy Seadragon, Australia, 2024(Picture credit score: Daniel Sly / Environmental Images Awards)
‘Breeding Machine’ by Amy Jones. Winner of the ‘Humanity vs Nature’ class. Aged Indochinese tigress on a tiger farm, Thailand, 2023(Picture credit score: Amy Jones / Environmental Images Awards)
Camouflaged within the Rubbish Dump’ by Lakshitha Karunarathna. Runner-up within the ‘Humanity vs Nature’ class. Elephant in the course of a sea of waste, Sri Lanka, 2023(Picture credit score: Lakshitha Karunarathna / Environmental Images Awards)
‘No Air within the Pit’ by Javier Aznar. Runner-up within the ‘Humanity vs Nature’ class. Rattlesnakes in a pit, Texas, United States, 2020(Picture credit score: Javier Aznar / Environmental Images Awards)
‘Caring for the Unseen Giants’ by Fernando Faciole. Runner-up within the ‘Change Makers: Causes for Hope’ class. Large armadillo’s paw, Pantanal area, Brazil, 2023(Picture credit score: Fernando Faciole / Environmental Images Awards)
‘Little Large’s Stroll’ by Fernando Faciole. Runner-up within the ‘Change Makers: Causes for Hope’ class. Younger big anteater present process rehabilitation, Brazil, 2024(Picture credit score: Fernando Faciole / Environmental Images Awards)
The Public Vote prize was awarded to Fernndo Faciole for a picture of a recovering tapir. The tapir was rescued from one of many largest fires recorded within the Pantanal biome, Faciole mentioned.
After the Flames, Hope’ by Fernndo Faciole. Winner of the Public Vote. Tapir saved from hearth, Pantanal area, Brazil, 2024 (Picture credit score: Fernando Faciole / Environmental Images Awards)
The competition gave the Monaco Pupil Vote award to Bamband Wirawan for {a photograph} of a tiger framed by skeletal stays.
‘Forest Guard’ by Bambang Wirawan. Winner of the Monaco Pupil Vote. Sumatran tiger, Indonesia, 2021 (Picture credit score: Bambang Wirawan / Environmental Images Awards)
“Images performs a essential function in highlighting the interconnectedness of particular person well-being and environmental well being,” mentioned Ami Vitale, a Nationwide Geographic photographer, documentary filmmaker, and the lead for the award’s jury. “Photographs immediate dialog and consideration of how we are able to shield and worth these irreplaceable environments throughout the planet. They reduce by means of apathy, seize actuality, evoke empathy, and ignite motion. By means of this visible medium, we reconnect individuals with nature, highlighting not solely the perils but additionally the promise and the hope that exists throughout us.”
