Wildlife Photographer Of The Year: Emotive polar bear image by amateur UK snapper wins top people’s vote prize
An amateur photographer from the UK has won a prestigious Wildlife Photographer Of The Year award with this emotive shot of a polar bear sleeping in a makeshift bed carved into a small iceberg.
Nima Sarikhani captured the image off Norway‘s Svalbard archipelago after spending three days “desperately searching” for the animals through thick fog.
After his expedition vessel changed course, he eventually encountered two polar bears – and witnessed the smaller male bear making his bed before falling asleep.
The picture, titled Ice Bed, has been crowned the winner of the Natural History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer Of The Year people’s choice award, after being whittled down to a shortlist of 25 from almost 50,000 entries from around the world.
More than 75,000 people cast their votes – a record number – to name Nima this year’s winner.
Organisers praised the “breathtaking and poignant” image, saying it “allows us to see the beauty and fragility of our planet” and acts as “a stark reminder of the integral bond between an animal and its habitat… a visual representation of the detrimental impacts of climate warming and habitat loss.”
Nima said he was “honoured” to win the award.
“This photograph has stirred strong emotions in many of those who have seen it,” he said. “Whilst climate change is the biggest challenge we face, I hope that this photograph also inspires hope; there is still time to fix the mess we have caused.”
Four photographs were highly commended and will be displayed alongside Ice Bed online and in the accompanying exhibition at the Natural History Museum in west London until the end of June.
The runners-up
The Happy Turtle by Tzahi Finkelstein, from Israel
This image of a Balkan pond turtle sharing a moment with a northern banded groundling dragonfly was taken from a hide in Israel’s Jezreel Valley. Tzahi was photographing shore birds when he spotted the turtle, but only turned his full attention to the reptile when he saw the dragonfly heading its way across the murky waters. When the insect landed, rather than snapping it up for dinner, the turtle appeared playful – leading to the perfect shot.
Shared Parenting by Mark Boyd, from Kenya
A pair of lionesses devotedly groom one of their pride’s five cubs in this early morning image taken in Kenya’s Maasai Mara. Photographer Mark Boyd said he had witnessed them the evening before, leaving the cubs hidden overnight in dense bushes while they went out to hunt. Returning from their mission, they called the cubs out on to the open grassland for a bit of sprucing up. “Here the youngster was clearly enjoying the moment of affection and attention,” Mark’s entry said.
Starling Murmuration by Daniel Dencescu, from Germany/Romania
A murmuration of starlings is always mesmerising, but when the huge, swooping mass forms itself into one giant bird you make sure to reach for your camera. Having seen the birds gathering in Rome after returning from foraging each day, Daniel Dencescu caught this image after spending hours following them around the city and its suburbs. “Finally, on this cloudless winter’s day, the flock didn’t disappoint,” he said.
Aurora Jellies – Audun Rikardsen, from Norway
Illuminated by the aurora borealis, moon jellyfish swarm in the cool autumnal waters of a fjord outside Tromsø in northern Norway in Audun Rikardsen’s image. Sheltering his equipment in a self-made waterproof housing, he used a single exposure as well as his own system for adjusting the focus and aperture to capture the reflection of the sky’s colours on the surface of the water – and at the same time, light up the jellyfish with flashes.
The people’s choice award follows the winner of the overall Wildlife Photographer Of Year prize, which is decided by judges and was awarded to underwater photographer and marine biologist Laurent Ballesta in October.
The last UK winner for the people’s choice award was Sam Rowley, whose image of two fighting mice was voted the favourite in 2020.
A UK photographer last won the main competition in 2007, when wildlife and landscape photographer Ben Osborne picked up the prize for a picture of a large bull elephant kicking and spraying mud in Botswana.
Paul Mescal praised fellow Irish star and friend Saoirse Ronan for speaking out about women’s safety in a TV talk show clip that went viral.
The two Oscar nominees appeared on The Graham Norton Show, where Eddie Redmayne was talking about how he trained for his role as a lone assassin in Sky Atlantic series The Day Of The Jackal, where he was taught how to use a mobile phone if attacked.
In response, Mescal, 28, joked: “Who is going to think about that though?”
He continued:: “If someone attacks me I’m not going to go [reaches into pocket] phone.”
But Ronan chimed in and said: “That’s what girls have to think about all the time. Am I right ladies?”
The clip quickly went viral on social media, with Ronan praised for holding the men to account.
Mescal was asked on Irish broadcaster RTE’s The Late Late Show if they were surprised by the reaction the clip had.
“I’m not surprised that the message received as much attention that it got, because it’s massively important and I’m sure you’ve had Saoirse on the show, like, she’s… quite often, more often than not, the most intelligent person in the room,” he replied.
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He said she was “spot on” and “hit the nail on the head”, adding it was good “messages like that are kind of gaining traction – that’s a conversation that we should absolutely be having on a daily basis”.
Ronan previously called the reaction to her comments “wild”.
Saoirse Ronan was appearing on the show to promote her latest movie, The Outrun
She told The Ryan Tubridy Show on Virgin Radio UK: “It’s definitely not something that I had expected, and I didn’t necessarily set out to sort of make a splash.”
But she said men and women from around the world had reached out to her following the moment.
She said the men on the show “weren’t sort of like debunking anything that I was saying”, and explained Mescal “completely gets” the issue as they have talked about it before.
Entertainment
Jon Kenny: Irish comedian who starred in Father Ted and Banshees of Inisherin dies aged 66
Jon Kenny, an Irish comedian and actor known for D’Unbelievables and roles on Father Ted, has died aged 66.
His wife Margie told local news outlet the Limerick Leader that the comedian had died on Friday evening in Galway Clinic.
In a statement to the newspaper, Kenny’s family said he had a cardiac arrest early on 10 November. They added the comedian “grabbed life and shook it as hard as he could getting every ounce of fun, madness and love from it”.
They also said: “His wit, humour, generosity and kindness will outlast his passing. The memories and stories of those who knew him will be his legend.”
Kenny was best known as half of the comedy duo with Pat Shortt called D’Unbelievables in the 1980s. He also made two guest appearances in Father Ted as Michael Cocheese and Fred Rickwood.
The comedian was reunited with Shortt in the 2022 film The Banshees of Inisherin, where both had small roles.
Paying tribute, Taoiseach Simon Harris called the Limerick actor a “gifted performer,” while Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald called him a “comedic genius”.
In a post on social media, Mr Harris said: “Jon had the ability, that very few people possess, to make his audiences crack up laughing with a glance or a single word.
“Behind that seemingly effortless talent to joke, there was a gifted performer and an extremely deep thinker.”
The Taoiseach added he was in Limerick on Friday “when word of his death came through and to say he is beloved, is a huge understatement”.
Ms McDonald also said of Kenny: “Along with his compadre Pat Shortt – [he] connected with the unique humour and wit of the Irish people in a very special way.
“He leaves the best legacy – he made people laugh and smile. Jon Kenny will be deeply missed.”
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Fellow Irish comedian Dara O Briain said on social media Kenny “was a lovely, lovely man, and a comedy powerhouse”.
He said: “D’Unbeliveables opened the door to all the rest of us, doing epic tours and dragging the audience, sometimes bodily, into a mad world of their creation.
“A unique man, and will be missed.”
Boy George is contemplating his relationship with fame. Intoxicating, often inescapable, he says he has not always found his decades in the spotlight easy
There has been a cost, he says. Much has been well documented. But in recent years he has been able to enjoy it all much more.
And it’s not real. “Fame is a figment of other people’s imaginations. You’re only famous because other people believe you are.”
Boy George has created a new art collection, titled Fame
Most will know Boy George the avant garde musician, flamboyant frontman of Culture Club, one of the biggest music acts of the 1980s. Big hats, big songs, big personality. He has found new fans more recently through appearances on reality shows such as I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! and as a judge on The Voice.
He is also an artist, and fame is the theme of his latest collection of portraits.
Vivid, bold, punk, they are exactly as you might expect. He has painted his hero David Bowie, fellow music icons Madonna and Prince, as well as a self-portrait.
The collection features images of David Bowie, Madonna and Prince, as well as a self-portrait. Pic: Dave Parry/ PA/ Castle Fine Art
“I think of Boy George from the ’80s as a sort of cartoon character,” he says. “Because on the one hand, there was this public persona, which was one thing, and it was very recognisable. And then there was me behind it… I used to have a real problem with [fame] and I feel now I’m like, it’s just a job.”
The portrait of his younger self is a reminder of how his relationship with fame has changed.
“I never really took it that seriously,” he says. “There were moments when I lost my mind – we all know what they were. But I always kind of knew who I was.”
‘I was really lucky to have my family’
Culture Club on stage performing in 1982. Pic: Ron Wolfson/ Rock Negatives/ MediaPunch Boy George/ IPX/ AP
The star, whose real name is George O’Dowd, has spoken and written about his struggles with addiction in the past. In 2009, he was jailed for four months for false imprisonment.
In his last autobiography, he described it as a “stupid, aggressive and regrettable” incident that was over in “less than 30 seconds”. He disputes some of the details that came out in court, but called himself an “idiot who did too many drugs and made a massive mistake”.
George says his family helped him through the dark times. Despite there being more conversation than ever around mental health and the pressures on young stars today, he is not convinced the support is any better.
“I think in my case, I was really lucky to have my family… particularly my late mother. Whatever was going on, she was always there to kind of try and harness me into reality. And sometimes it took a bit of pulling and shoving, but I feel like my family have been so important to me in terms of, you know, keeping me sane. But it hasn’t always been an easy thing.”
The Bowie portrait features the star in his famous Tokyo Pop body suit from the Aladdin Sane tour, designed by Kansai Yamamoto, pictured here during an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum in 2018. Pic: Mary Altaffer/ AP
Now in his 60s, as well as Boy George, he is plain old “George from Eltham”, southeast London; although plain is not really an adjective you would ascribe to him.
“As I’ve got older, I’ve kind of accepted I created this Boy George person, and I can either have as much fun with it as I can, or I can make it full of anxiety,” he says.
For his Fame collection, he chose Bowie because the artist “shaped my whole career, my whole childhood”. His relationship with Madonna, whom he has captured in her Madame X era from 2019 rather than one of her more famous earlier incarnations, “because artists continue to evolve”, is more complex.
They first met after he saw her in concert in New York, with fellow ’80s star Marilyn and two friends. They went backstage and he asked for a picture.
‘There’s never been warmth… on either side’
George first met Madonna during her The Virgin tour in the mid-1980s. Pic: AP/ NewsBase
“She grabbed the boys and just sat them on her lap, which is kind of major,” he says. “She took control immediately. And I’ve got this great picture of Madonna and this guy that I kind of lost contact with.”
But he and the Queen of Pop never became friends. “Over the years we sort of met each other, but there’s never been any kind of warmth necessarily on either side,” he says. “But I am a fan… with me, if I like the music, I don’t necessarily have to be best friends with the person… I can like things without being petty.”
It was perhaps part and parcel of fame in the 1980s, he says.
“When you’re young, everything’s a competition. As you get older, you get a bit more confident about who you are and more secure and therefore you’re able to enjoy things without feeling threatened. So I think in the ’80s, all of us were in competition with each other… nowadays I’m kind of able to enjoy a lot of bands that I hissed at in the past, you know.”
Culture Club are touring later in the year, along with Tony Hadley and Heaven 17
Earlier this year, George made his Broadway debut, performing in Moulin Rouge. Now, he is getting ready for gigs with Culture Club again, alongside Tony Hadley and Heaven 17.
They will play their first two albums, Kissing To Be Clever and Colour By Numbers, in full. “[It’s] one of the reasons I agreed to this tour,” he says. “I knew we wouldn’t argue about what we were playing.”
There is also a biopic in the works. George has long said he would like Game Of Thrones star Sophie Turner to play him and the campaign continues, he says. “In this day and age, why can’t have a woman playing a man? Why not break the rules? It’s kind of what I was doing 30, 40 years ago.”
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And he is still releasing solo music. His latest track, Let The Flowers Grow, is a collaboration with Bauhaus’ Peter Murphy.
“A lot of stuff I release, no one really hears of it unless they’re like a mad hardcore fan,” he says. “I’ve released 54 tracks in the last year, probably more than any other artist. And I will continue to keep putting stuff out and being creative because it feels like breathing, you know, it feels really enjoyable and I feel lucky that I get to do the thing I love.”
He takes a beat. “I mean that. I really enjoy it now in a way that I just didn’t know how to 10 years ago, 20 years ago, because I was so busy worrying about what other people thought about this, that and the other.
“Now I’m like, I want to tell people how I feel more. I mean, I’ve always done that, but I feel like, when you start to understand yourself more and realise what makes you actually happy, then you are able to express yourself in a better way.”
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