Wildlife/Animals nominee

The rockstar of the bison world! In a league of his own. A living icon. This is the biggest and the woolliest bison I have ever photographed. He looks prehistoric even in comparison to other bison.
To me, this bison embodies the spirit of the ancestors. Tatanka stands for bison in one of the Sioux tribes languages. Though, it is not clear to which extent native Americans got to the heart of the Yellowstone ecosystem before the arrival of the Europeans.
A winter wonderland for us is a brutal environment for wildlife. Only the strongest survive. Yellowstone NP, USA.

My work has been published by National Geographic, BBC Earth, GEO, Wild Planet Photo Magazine, Africa Geographic and Pachyderm, among others. Previously a nominee in FAPA and a finalist in Wildlife Comedy Photography Awards and in the Africa Geographic Photographer of the Year; won the grand prize in a national photo contest.
My flagship photographic project is called The World As It Once Was and is focused on the last "trophy" individuals within iconic wildlife species. This project is not about whether trophy hunting benefits or not conservation in general. It is also not about whether trophy hunting is moral or not. These are issue I leave aside for another day. This story is about one clear, unfortunate consequence of trophy hunting: the elimination of the individuals with the best genes from iconic wildlife species: in other words, the loss of intra-species biodiversity. This story is about bringing together the results of 30-40 years of scientific research and superb imagery. It is about showing these animals alive, as magnificent as they are. The question I have asked myself each time was: if a statue would have to be raised to a species, how would that look like?