Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Awarded for	Wildlife photography
Country	United Kingdom
Presented by	The Natural History Museum
First awarded	1964
Currently held by	Laurent Ballesta
Website	http://www.nhm.ac.uk/wildphoto

Wildlife Photographer of the Year is an annual international wildlife photography competition staged by the Natural History Museum in London, England. There is an exhibition of the winning and commended images each year at the museum, which later tours around the world. The event has been described as one of the most prestigious photography competitions in the world.^[1][2]

It was known as BG Wildlife Photographer of the Year from 1990 to 2003, and briefly as Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Kodak Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Prudential Wildlife Photographer of the Year. The first competition was held in 1964, with three categories and around 600 entries.^[3] In 2008 the competition received over 32,000 entries from 3100 photographers in 82 countries.^[3]

A book of winning entries and runners-up has been published each year since 1992,^[4] with two books being published in 1994 (the first three volumes were published the year after the corresponding competitions were held). Early volumes have become quite collectable.