Every year, the competition celebrates the wonder and fragility of our planet through the most extraordinary images in world nature photography.
For the 61st edition, from more than 60,000 images submitted from 113 countries, the international jury awarded South African photographer Wim van den Heever the overall prize for Ghost Town Visitor: a brown hyena roaming the ruins of an abandoned mining town in Namibia, a powerful symbol of nature reclaiming human spaces.
The title of Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 went to Italian photographer Andrea Dominizi, the first Italian to receive the honour in the young people's category, for After the Destruction: a small beetle amid the remains of a deforested area in the Monti Lepini, a visual metaphor for habitat loss and the resilience of life.
Among the other award winners, Philipp Egger stands out, taking first place in the Animal Portraits category with Shadow Hunter, while Fernando Faciole received the Impact Award 2025 for Orphan of the Road, a deeply moving testament to hope and conservation.
The one hundred selected photographs reveal the extraordinary variety and vulnerability of life on our planet. Each image is accompanied by texts and notes from the photographers describing the context, technique and vision behind the shot, turning the exhibition into a journey of discovery.
This year, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year integrates for the first time data from the Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII), developed by the Natural History Museum to measure the health of global biodiversity — a concrete sign of how the competition unites visual beauty and scientific rigour in raising environmental awareness.
As Roberto Di Leo, president of Radicediunopercento, reminds us, "the beauty of nature is a universal language, capable of educating, moving and inspiring concrete actions for the future of our planet".
After its London debut, the exhibition will also come to Italy, thanks to the organisation of Radicediunopercento, a Milan-based cultural organisation that has been bringing the competition to our country for over fifteen years.
From 15 November 2025 to 25 January 2026, the Museo della Permanente in Milan will host the one hundred award-winning images in an immersive and accessible display that recreates the magic of the London experience.
The Italian edition will also offer workshops, guided tours and author evenings featuring prominent names in nature photography, such as Marco Colombo, Pietro Formis, Luca Eberle and Francesco Tomasinelli, as well as inclusive tools such as the "DescriVedendo" audio descriptions for people with visual impairments.