Wildlife / Animals 2nd place winner

Who has not been fascinated by the commanding presence of Africa’s most iconic elephants?
This timeless series is the coronation of years of hard work and field experience. It uses a cinematic approach, as the viewer gradually discovers the characters and their environment.
Like in a Jurassic Park opening scene, it starts with Quintessential Millionaire, featuring the immense, symmetrical ivory touching the ground of a legendary Tanzanian bull, who has never been photographed like that before, revealed in the second image, Plough-the-Earth.
The third picture (Pecking Order) is an intimate account of bull elephant interactions at a waterhole, dominated by a picturesque big tusker with a broken left tusk and a flopping left ear. The image conveys the hierarchy, as a lower ranked bull can be spotted by looking under the belly of a bull closer to the water.
Moving to Kenya, in The Old Man and the Mountain the biggest tusked bull in the Amboseli ecosystem peacefully poses in front of the snow-capped Kilimanjaro.
The closing image (Mic Drop) sees Tsavo's mythical Balguda disappearing into dust at dusk, with one last look over-the-shoulder. Only about 10 photographers have ever seen from the ground this finest bull among great bulls.

Dian is a multi-award winning fine art wildlife photographer, scientist, author, inspirational speaker and world records discoverer, specialised in world record and world class individuals in iconic megafauna species.
He creates timeless images by using an immersive approach, portraying as never seen before giants that have captured our imagination. He pays much attention not only to the subject selection, perspective and composition, but also to body postures. If a Statue, a Monument were to be raised to a species, what would that look like?
Dian is the author of the award-winning book The World As It One Was (2020), which combines arresting visuals with solid science. He supports local conservation projects in Africa with proceedings from his book and from fine art prints, including as a two-time contributor to Prints for Wildlife.
He was a member of the jury of the Golden Turtle Photography Awards (2023) and the Jackson Wild Film Festival (2022) and the curator of the exhibition Europe's Wild Heart (Brussels, 2019).
Dian has 10 years of artistic, scientific and conservation experience working with big-tusked African and Asian elephants and over 30 of his images were awarded or were finalists in prestigious photography competitions around the world.