GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021
I am honoured that my image, 97 percent, has been Highly Commended in the Man & Nature Category of the GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2021.
The image shows the reflection of a young boy looking at a Bornean orangutan caught in the glass of the orangutan's enclosure at Dudley Zoo in the West Midlands, England. The image was made as part of a long term photography project documenting our relation with animals and, in particular, captive animals that are kept in zoos.
Orangutans share 97 percent of their DNA with humans. Despite this close connection, the lives of this orangutan and this boy could not be more different. The orangutan is kept in an artificial enclosure, far from its native home in Borneo, for the pleasure and enjoyment of humans to see. The human visitors to this zoo are free to go about as they please but this orangutan will live out its entire life in this enclosure.
The relentless destruction of the rainforests in Borneo and Sumatra, that are home to the last remaining populations or wild orangutan, are pushing these beautiful sentient animals to the brink of extinction. However, it is not to late to save what remains of these rainforests, to ensure that these “men of the forest” continue to have a wild home and that they are not relegated to “exhibits”, kept behind glass in artificial concrete enclosures for “our” pleasure and enjoyment.