Magdalena Herrera, Chair of the jury

Magdalena Herrera is the director of photography for Geo, France. As head of the photodepartment, Magdalena is responsible for choosing and commissioning photographers, proposing stories, and managing a team of photo editors, as well as controlling the photography budget of France’s biggest-selling photo-reportage monthly.

Born in Havana to a family of artists, Magdalena Herrera left Cuba as a child to settle in Paris, where she studied fine art and art history at the Sorbonne before starting her career as a photographer and art director. She has worked in books, print, and magazines, spending ten years as art director and head of the photo department at National Geographic France before joining Geo France as Director of
Photography. Parallel to her journalistic work, Magdalena Herrera teaches workshops and seminars around the world organized by the World Press Photo Foundation and the Fokal fondation in Haiti.

She is an experienced judge when it comes to (nature)photo competitions. Previously she was member of the jury of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year and was president of the jury of the World Press Photo in 2017 and 2018, member of the jury of the GDT competition, amongst many, many other competitions. If there’s one thing you can say about Magdalena, it’s that she’s got a keen eye for a great image!

Christian Ziegler

Christian Ziegler is an internationally known photojournalist born in Germany and specializing in natural history and science-related topics. He is a regular contributor to National Geographic magazine and has been widely published in other magazines such as Geo, Smithsonian, and BBC Wildlife.

A tropical ecologist by training, he has worked in tropical rainforests on four continents, and since 2001 has been Associate for communication with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama.

Conservation is the ultimate motivation for all of Christian’s work and he has been collaborating with many NGS’s. He is a founding fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP.com).

Christians work has been awarded prizes in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year and the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year competitions, and in 2008, he has was honoured with the Vision Award by the North American Nature Photography Association. His photo of a southern cassowary won the nature section of the World Press Award 2013, and his bonobo story was awarded a World Press Award in 2014.

He judged many competitions like World Press Photo, Wildlife Photographer of the Year, GDT and many others. We are pleased that he will judge our Nature Photographer of The Year (NPOTY) 2019 competition in this 2019.

Marco Gaiotti

Marco Gaiotti was born in Genoa in 1983. In 2007 he discovered the wild spaces of Southern Africa, and along with them the passion for nature photography that pursues him to explore year after year the wildest environments of our planet. In 2009 Marco spent a whole month in Alaska, camping and hiking alone in such magnificent wilderness. After this experience he decided to give a more professional target to its photography, which is put into effect on an expedition to Svalbard Islands in early autumn, just before the arctic night: following the expedition, its arctic images were published on international newspapers and journals worldwide. Marco Gaiotti currently self supports its photography projects working as associate professor of shipbuilding at the University of Genova.

International awards include the overall winner of the Memorial Maria Luisa in 2018, GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the year, Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice Awards, Oasis, Asferico, Montphoto, SONY WPA (shortlisted), Glanzlichter, Nature Photographer of the Year, Bio Photo Contest, Siena International Photo Awards, Global Arctic Awards and others…

Marco;

“To me, nature photography represents a strong interaction between wildlife and the surrounding environment. In my picture I like to include the habitat as much as possible, which becomes a fundamental element of the composition. For this reason, when a species can be approached safely for both the photographer and the animal, I like using wide angle lenses instead of long telephotos, in order to depict wildlife and its natural environment…”
https://500px.com/marcogaiotti

René Alblas

René Alblas has been a photo editor for almost 20 years now. He studied design at an Art academy but has been involved with nature photography almost his whole life.
Nowadays living in France, but still working for Roots, nature magazine, as photoeditor.

René is author of the book “Zo fotografeer je natuur” (“This is how to take photos of nature”) and has written over 1.200 articles about nature photography. He has been member of the jury in previous editions of the Nature Photographer of the Year competition as well.

www.rootsmagazine.nl/author/renealblas/