HIGHLY COMMENDED CATEGORY MAN AND NATURE 
Francisco Negroni | The Cry of Pain

Name: Francisco Negroni
Picture title: The Cry of Pain
Category: Man and nature
Nationality: Chile
Occupation: Full-time photographer

Technical information
Camera: Nikon D300
Lens: Sigma 70-200 2.8
EXIF: ISO 500, f5.6, 1/320 sec

Francisco says:

I made this picture on early morning in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile (chilean Patagonia, Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica region). The Scream of Pain is a testament of how human carelessness can destroy an environment, even a protected one. In 2011 due to the negligence of a tourist, a fire started and 17,600 hectares were burned.

As a freelance photographer, I traveled to Chilean Patagonia to do some reports on the fire, I toured the Park, shocked seeing the devastation. I was surrounded by the silence between ashes and the remains of some dead animals. On a slope I felt the cries of a guanaco (Lama guanicoe, characteristic animal of the area). Withy my camera in my hand I hurried to discover what was happening and there it was; a guanaco shouting to the horizon in search of his family or herd, a cry that never got answered.