One of the highlights of the 2010 NANPA Summit was a keynote address given by Swedish photographer Staffan Widstrand. Staffan’s work is first-rate, but he came to NANPA to talk about Wild Wonders of Europe, a project he started with fellow nature photographers Peter Cairns and Florian Mollers. The scope of the project is enormous: to raise awareness for European wildlife and wild places, Staffan and his collaborators assembled a team of more than sixty of the best photographers in Europe and sent them “on assignment” to more than 100 locations representing every one of the 48 countries in Europe.
Most people, including most Europeans, tend to think that Europe isn’t the place to go if you want to see wildlife. Living in a relatively small land area and competing for space with more than 700 million people, it’s not surprising that Europe’s wildlife isn’t as conspicuous or plentiful as wildlife in many other parts of the world. But the photographs speak for themselves: Europe has plenty of “Wild Wonders” left!
The NANPA audience – myself included – was awestruck as Staffan showed some of the fruits of the project’s photographic expeditions. There were animals – big animals – that we had never even heard of, like the bizarre bulbous-nosed Saiga antelope. More recognizable wildlife were well represented too, often portrayed in creative new ways. At the end of the lecture, I overheard a man sitting in front of me say to his friend: “There were only a couple of images in that whole presentation that COULDN’T have won Wildlife Photographer of the Year” [referring to the prestigious Veolia/BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition]. I couldn’t agree more!
To see some of the incredible images the photographers involved in this project have produced, and to learn more about the project, check out the Wild Wonders of Europe website.