Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards exhibit opens at Springfield Museums
Kris Ludwig, Curator of Art for the Springfield Museums, is hoping that one of the 60 happy-go-lucky animals on display in the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum as part of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards exhibit will be enough to brighten anyone's day.
'We first came across the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards years ago in articles featuring many of the winning images. They were so funny and uplifting that it became somewhat of a tradition for us to continue sharing them with family, friends, and coworkers every year,' Ludwig said in an interview with The Republican. 'When we discovered that the photographs were being offered as an exhibition, we were delighted to have the opportunity to share this same joy with our visitors.'
The competition for which the exhibit is named, the Comedy Wildlife Awards, describes its mission as 'conservation through competition' on its website.
The awards are co-hosted by wildlife photographers Paul Joynson-Hicks and Tom Sullam, who also co-founded the awards in 2015. It all began when Joynson-Hicks, who has lived in East Africa for the past 30 years, took the time to slow down and really look at the photos he was taking. In doing so, he noticed just how relatable animals could be.
In a statement on the competition's website, Joynson-Hicks said, 'To really understand animals and the issues that affect them, you need to empathize with them as fellow inhabitants of the same planet.'
The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, which has expanded over the years to welcome thousands of entries internationally, donates a portion of its proceeds to the Whitley Fund for Nature, a United Kingdom-based charity that supports conservation leaders across the global south.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, more than 47,000 species are being threatened with extinction as of this year. That breaks down to 41% of amphibians, 27% of mammals, 34% of conifers, 12% of birds, 37% of sharks and rays, 44% of reef corals, 28% of crustaceans, 21% of reptiles and 71% of cycads under this threat.
While conservation awareness and fundraising are its primary goals, the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards do aim to fulfill a second purpose: making people smile.
'The photographs are as beautiful as they are humorous, so I hope visitors also come away with a sense of appreciation for the natural world around us as well as a closer connection to nature's creatures after sharing some laughs,' Ludwig said.
The photographs on display at the Springfield Museums are winners from across the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards' 10-year run. Among them is 'Smile!' which shows a marsh frog leaping out of the water with a big grin, and 'Squirrel Wishes,' which depicts a Eurasian Red Squirrel blowing on a dandelion.
Just like the competition itself, the photos on display at the Springfield Museums span the globe, with photographers from across Italy, Sweden, Australia and Russia — just to name a few — being represented.
'As diverse as the photographers are, the locations they traveled to capture these images is even more expansive and includes exotic locals like the Falkland Islands, the Bahamas, and Namibia as well as some more close to home, like Staten Island, New York, proving that animal comedy could be hiding in your own backyard,' Ludwig said.
In some cases, the photos capture animals that are now considered 'critically endangered' by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, such as the Verreaux's Sifaka, a lemur species native to Madagascar.
In Alison Buttigieg's photograph from 2015, 'Staying Alive!,' the lemur is captured mid-hop with one arm raised. Since that time, deforestation and illegal hunting has driven down the Verreaux's Sifaka population, and their status was officially updated from 'vulnerable' to 'critically endangered' in 2020.
Asked what his favorite photograph is in the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards exhibit, Ludwig said the answer was 'difficult.'
'One of the most wholesome is certainly 'The Laughing Dormouse' by Andrea Zampatti,' he said. 'The tiny mouse is perched in a flower with its eyes squinting and an expression of pure happiness — you can almost imagine it letting out a little squeak of joy.'
Down the hall, the Springfield Museums offers plenty of additional opportunities for animal lovers of all ages to learn more.
'Whiskers and Whimsy: Animals in Currier & Ives Prints,' a collection of more than 1,200 lithographs that depict fuzzy and feathered animals is on display in the D'Amour Museum of Fine Arts. 'Habitat,' on loan from the Smithsonian Institution, is installed throughout the museum grounds and depicts the many different environments that animals call home. In the Springfield Science Museum, visitors can also visit the newly renovated Live Animal Center. 'Here Be Dragons,' also at the Springfield Science Museum, brings visitors face-to-face with live reptiles.
For more information about the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards and other ongoing exhibits at the Springfield Museums, visit the Museums' website.
Read the original article on MassLive.
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