The winning photographs from 61st edition London Natural History Museum Photography Awards ranging from underwater life to urban wildlife.
A photograph that captures the solitude of a brown hyena among the ruins of an abandoned mining town in Namibia has earned South African Wim van den Heever the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025.
Selected from more than 60 thousand applications from 113 countries, the image “Ghost Town Visitor – Visitor from the Ghost Town” won the . The Young Photographer award was awarded to Italian Andrea Dominizi, aged 17, and the Impacto Award to Brazilian Fernando Faciole.
The awards were announced on October 14th at the Natural History Museum in London, and the exhibition with the winning images opened to the public on October 17th.
Ten years waiting for the photo
A brown hyena near the ruins of Kolmanskop, an old diamond mining town in Namibia, has earned South African photographer Wim van den Heever the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025.
The image shows how nature returns to a once human space, transforming abandonment into a panorama of wildlife.
It took Wim van den Heever ten years to obtain the photograph. After finding hyena footprints in the ghost town, he set up a camera trap and waited.
“I knew they were there, but photographing one of them, I thought it would never happen”, recalls the photographer, who for years walked the deserted streets of Kolmanskop looking for the animal.
The brown hyena is the rarest of hyenas, with nocturnal habits and a solitary life. It usually crosses the region on its way to the coast of the Namib Desert, where it hunts Cape fur seal pups or forages for carrion. Because they are discreet, camera traps are today an essential tool for studying the behavior of the species.
Kathy Moran, president of the jury, described the photograph as “appropriately taken in a ghost town”.
“You get goosebumps just looking at this image and you know that you are in the kingdom of this hyena. I love the reinterpretation of what is ‘urban’: it was once human, now it belongs to nature,” he said.
Juror Akanksha Sood Singh also highlighted the symbolism of the photograph:
“It’s a sinister juxtaposition of human civilization versus wildlife’s recovery. A story of loss and resilience that becomes unforgettable.”
Young Photographer of the Year: Andrea Dominizi
The prize Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2025 was awarded to 17-year-old Andrea Dominiziand who became the first Italian to win the award.
The winning image, “After Destruction”, shows a beetle on a cut log, next to abandoned machinery in the Lepini Mountains, in central Italy.
“This photo shows the challenge faced by many species: habitat loss,” explained Andrea.
As wood beetles excavate tunnels in the dead wood, it allows the entry of fungi that help update and recycle nutrients. Habitat destruction breaks this vital cycle, affecting the entire ecosystem.
Photographer and judge Andy Parkinson praised the image for “combining beauty, narrative and urgency”.
“I hope it stimulates discussion and makes us realize that we need to change our current path.”
Impacto Award: hope in Brazil
In the second edition of the Impacto Prize, dedicated to stories of conservation and hope, the winner was Brazilian Fernando Faciole, with the image “Orphan of the Road”.
The photograph shows an orphaned anteater chick following its caregiver in a rehabilitation center, drawing attention to the impact of road accidents – one of the main causes of the species’ decline in Brazil.
The Anteaters and Highways project, from the Institute for the Conservation of Wild Animals, works on measures such as tunnels, structures and fences to reduce deaths on the roads.
Juror Hans Cosmas Ngoteya highlighted that the image “symbolizes many endangered animals that depend on us to survive.”
61st Wildlife Photographers of the Year Exhibition
The winning photographs, 19 in total, in categories ranging from underwater life to urban wildlife, have been on display at the Natural History Museum in London since October 17th. The exhibition celebrates the diversity of life on the planet and the power of photography as a conservation tool.
