VICTORIA — In a show of 100 large, backlit photographs, the mind chooses a few to hold in the memory.
In the freshly open Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at Victoria’s Royal British Columbia Museum, the unforgettable photo might be the competition’s grand prize winner, Michael “Nick” Nichols’ image of the Vumbi lions inside Serengeti National Park.
It could be “Hollywood Cougar,” Steve Winter’s nighttime shot of a mountain lion prowling the hills above Los Angeles, the Hollywood sign on the horizon behind.
Then there’s Tim Laman’s portfolio of birds of paradise wooing each other.
This show, a display of animals and natural phenomena — from jellyfish to gorillas to the northern lights — is the fruit of an annual contest that, this time around, drew 42,000 entries from across the world.
The chosen 100 come from photographers in Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas, and from cameras carried by children as young as 8. Skye Meaker, the boy behind an image titled “Vanishing Lion,” is a finalist in the age 11 to 14 category, and took his photo while on a safari drive.
Encountering a pride of lions, he focused on the nearest cat and, just as he pressed the shutter release, Skye zoomed the lens out. The result is surreal.
2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year, which is co-owned by the Natural History Museum and BBC Worldwide of London. The exhibition arrived this month in Victoria and will stay till April 6 while the museum offers a series of tours, photography programs and workshops for adults and youth. For details, see www.RoyalBCmuseum.bc.ca and click on Learning.
Viewers should allow an hour to take all this in. The competition has 22 categories, including bird life; natural wonders such as volcanic eruptions; invertebrates such as the Portuguese man o’war; and “World in Our Hands,” images depicting the ways humans exploit their fellow creatures.
The overall winner, which Nichols photographed after he’d spent six months following the Vumbi pride of Tanzania, is both sweeping and stark. The group of lionesses and their cubs are relaxing on a kopje, a rocky outcrop — and two are looking straight into the eyes of the viewer. The rest doze, the Serengeti plain stretching out behind them like an ocean. Above it all, a wide ray of sunlight pours from the sky.
The lions were photographed in infrared, which “cuts through the light and turns the moment into something primal, biblical almost,” Nichols told What’s inSight, the Royal B.C. Museum’s magazine. Much more about the photographer’s life awaits at www.MichaelNickNichols.com.
Upstairs from the wildlife show, the museum offers several other exhibitions, including “Our Living Languages: First Peoples’ Voices in B.C.” This show, up through June 2017, is rich in photography and sound.
So is the permanent First Peoples exhibition. This third-floor gallery is forested with 12 large totem poles, reflecting the past according to the Haida, Tsimshian, Nootkan and other tribes. Bear masks and thunderbird headdresses surround the visitor, while a soundtrack of bird calls plays.
So while it takes a ferry trip and more than a few dollars to see, the Royal B.C. Museum imparts an unparalleled experience. It may be only an hour or so, but it’s an adventuresome stint of travel across space and time.
