A Frenchman awarded the title among 49,957 applications from 95 countries. The winners of the prestigious naturalist photography competition of the Natural History Museum of London, the Wildlife Photographer of the Yearwere revealed on October 13, 2023. And Laurent Ballesta received the prize for the most beautiful wildlife photo of the year for this image of a horseshoe crab with a golden shell swimming, like an alien, in the waters of the Philippines! He explains to 20 minutes the making of this image by evoking his vision of underwater photography and biodiversity.
What do we see in the image?
“It’s a photo of a horseshoe crab, an animal whose name we don’t necessarily know but which at one point marked our imagination,” explains Laurent Ballesta to 20 minutes. When it is alive, contrary to what we can see in museums, its shell is resplendent, it almost looks like gold, there are drawings on it, it’s a little marvel. » The naturalist photographer adds that the horseshoe crab has “gone through the dawn of time because it has hardly evolved for a hundred million years”, specifying that “its family was already present four hundred and fifty million years ago “. Above the animal, there are “juvenile golden jacks, small pilot fish which accompany, especially in their young years, the large animals to feed and benefit from their protection”.
He explains: “The horseshoe crab may not be of our time, but today it is an absolute necessity for human beings because its blue blood contains the only molecule that makes it possible to test for the absence of contaminants in the body. manufacturing of vaccines. There is therefore a real threat to this species. If the rules have evolved over time and a maximum quantity of 30% of their blood is taken before releasing them with a mark so as not to puncture them a second time, Laurent Ballesta explains that “of the 500,000 horseshoe crabs caught each year then released, half die,” according to scientific studies. For the oceanographer “this is a very concrete example of what biodiversity is, that is to say a set of differences, sometimes subtle, but which all have a place and a role to play. In wild nature, it is only diversity that holds an ecosystem together and there is no reason why it should not be the same thing in a society. »
What is the shooting context?
The photographer confides that he found this horseshoe crab “around a very small island called Pangatalan in the Philippines, fifteen or twenty meters deep”. He specifies: “It’s a semi-private island whose owners have been French for twenty years, a place which had suffered from deforestation, overfishing and pollution… And they wanted to restore it by surrounding themselves with scientists. » It is now a state reserve. He adds that he received an invitation from the scientific director of the project, a former student of his design office Andromeda Oceanology. When we told him about the horseshoe crab there, he “felt there was a new subject for wildlife photography”. By observing the relatively clear water around the island, he figured he could show the animal’s “quiet strength” on the move. “A kind of armored vehicle which does not go very fast but which makes its way through the dawn of time”, explains the scientist to 20 minutes. A rare fact since the horseshoe crab often lives “in marshy areas with zero visibility and most photos of this animal are taken out of water”. He adds: “The flash freezes the horseshoe crab and the slightly slow pose puts movement in the small fish that accompany it” to show “the calm and strength of one, and the excitement and fragility of the others “.
The extra anecdote
Already winner of Wildlife Photographer of the Year in 2021 for a photo on the reproduction of groupers, Laurent Ballesta advises fans of underwater photography to “show what we don’t know”. “Go photograph the reproduction of the white shark, rather than just the white shark, because we have never seen it,” explains the photographer, “without believing that exoticism is necessarily linked to the number of kilometers traveled.”
When asked about the environment, he cuts: “You have to be very careful with this shortcut, many photographers have this alibi: ‘My work is essential to saving the world.’ (ironic) Don’t count on me to have this speech. » However, he admits to being “in the water often enough to see that it deteriorates almost everywhere”. He considers that showcasing the beauty of the world no longer really protects him and that it can even be counterproductive by arousing the desire to travel. “Be careful not to serve the tourism industry! “, he warns. He believes there is another way. And specifies: “What fascinates me at the bottom of the sea is not its splendors, it is its mysteries. » Taking up the metaphor of religion, Laurent Ballesta explains that “believers do not respect their God because he finds him beautiful, but because he surpasses them” and hopes “to make people understand that the divinities, invented ago thousands of years, are nothing other than the laws of nature.” And to philosophize: “I try to convey, through a few images, the extent of everything we ignore. » Photographs that can be viewed on his personal website.