AfricaPress-Tanzania: THE African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) has launched a photography award contest in honour of the late President Benjamin Mkapa in recognition of his legacy as a journalist and conservationist.
AWF Media Specialist, Wambui Odhiambo said in web note that the award running under the theme ‘Bringing Africa to the World and the World to Africa’ is meant to create a platform for Africans to embrace conservation through photography and to value the beauty of its nature.
Former First Lady Anna Mkapa was the guest of honor during the launch of the Benjamin Mkapa Photography Award, also serving as a precursor to the 60th Anniversary of the African Wildlife Foundation, set up in 1961.
The Nairobi-based AWF is teaming up with Nature’s Best Photography (NBP) to run the competition in honor of the late, iconic African leader and former Tanzanian president, recognizing Mkapa’s leadership in conservation, education and his passionate support for AWF programs.
Professional, Amateur and Youth (18 and younger) photographers are eligible to enter the competition opening on April 5, 2021 and running through June 2021. The results are scheduled to be revealed at an awards ceremony in November 2021. Entrants will have the opportunity to win cash prizes and awards totaling $33,000 equivalent to 80m/-
“We value innovation and technological mechanisms that can scale up AWF’s work and impact, like digital technologies that can create new experiences by more directly connecting people to wildlands and wildlife,” AWF Chief Executive Officer Kaddu Sebunya stated during the competition launch.
“We aim to break degrees of separation between people and nature and create ownership, transparency, demonstrated impact and personalization. This is what the Benjamin Mkapa African Wildlife Photography Awards is all about,” he asserted.
In line with AWF’s mission to ensure wildlife and wildlands thrive in modern Africa and Nature’s Best to celebrate the natural world through the art of photography and visual storytelling, the competition’s goal is to engage, involve and attract photographers at all levels of expertise, while encouraging young talent to become advocates for generational behaviour change towards wildlife conservation.
The Grand Prize Winner will be awarded $5,000 with an interview and portfolio in Nature’s Best Photography magazine, along with publication in a special edition of Nature’s Best devoted to the Mkapa Photography Awards. The category winners will each be awarded $1,000 and will be featured in Nature’s Best special edition. There will be two Youth overall winners: one Africa-based and one Global Winner.
The competition will enhance the visibility of African wildlife through image windows like African Wildlife Behavior, African Wildlife Portraits, Wildlife at Risk, Fragile Wilderness, African Conservation Heroes, Wildlife in Modern Africa: Coexistence and Conflict, Art in Nature, and Through Africa in Motion/Video category. Participants will be able to submit footage of natural wildlife behavior and outdoor experiences in wildlands, he stated.
Nature’s Best Photography president Stephen Freligh said that through his 30-plus years as a publisher of photographic works, he has personally witnessed the positive impact of combining the creative and documentary talents of professional, amateur, and youth photographers alike. “Their memories are our new discoveries, and their stories are the window to the wild that allows our imagination to soar,” he stated.
The African Wildlife Foundation is the primary advocate for the protection of wildlife and wildlands as an essential part of a modern and prosperous Africa. Founded in 1961 to focus on Africa’s conservation needs, it articulates a vision uniquely adapted to Africa, plus bridging science and public policy.
It also seeks to demonstrate the benefits of conservation to ensure the survival of the continent’s wildlife and wildlands, the publisher added.
