Photojournalist Brent Stirton won the ’17 Wildlife Photographer title for his image of a poached black Rhino and the image has created global outrage.
Brent Stirton has created a conversation in some communities that possibly never knew about the poaching crisis in South Africa. His image of a mutilated Black Rhino has hit the sore spot in many peoples hearts.
The image won the Grand Title because of what message it sends to the world. This year attracted nearly 50,000 entries from 92 countries. Judges narrowed the selection down and were deeply moved by Brent Stirton’s entries.
“(The image was) symbolic of one of the most wasteful, cruel and unnecessary environmental crimes, one that needs to provoke the greatest public outcry.” – Roz Kidman Cox, Judge
‘When an image shocks and assaults us, there needs to be good reason. With this one, there is. The stark simplicity forces us to witness the brutal, tragic, stupid waste of a poacher’s work. If we feel disgust it is at our own species, while we pity the black bull rhino for its ghastly death, killed by two shots just so that its horn could be hacked off to supply illegal trade in a questionable “medicine”. There is a horrible intimacy to the photograph: it draws us in and invites us to explore our response and responsibility.’
Lewis Blackwell, Chair of the jury
The image is incredibly heartbreaking, not wanting to publish it here because of its graphic nature we have left it up to you to go and view it, which you can do here.
The image was also submitted to the World Press Photo 2017 Nature category where it won the first prize as well.
The powerful photo will go on show alongside 99 others at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition which opens on Friday, October 20 at the central London museum.
Brent was born in Durban but is currently based in New York. His works are popular for showing the issues of conflict, health and environmental issues.
While the image itself is tragic, it is creating an outcry across the globe. Highlighting the war on poaching and hopefully pushing more people into action.
To lighten up this post we are going to share some of the other images from the competition below.
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