Sunday Times Wilderness Photograph of the Month — NOVEMBER

R2 000 WINNER: ENDANGERED AFRICA | ATHOL MOULT

CONCRETE OCEAN: Three sharks are offloaded from a taxi’s roof onto a market street in Stone Town, Zanzibar. The flesh is sold for local consumption, while the valuable fins are destined for the East. The more severe the poverty in African countries, the higher the propensity for Indian Ocean trade with the East in shark fins,” says the photographer. “Shark fins from the region are supporting a burgeoning and unsustainable demand in the East for wild animal products. This image captures the hustle and bustle of the shark-fin trade in Africa and the pressure man exerts on sharks through overfishing.” According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, a quarter of sharks and rays at risk from habitat loss and overfishing.

THE JUDGES SAID: CR:

The arranged symmetry of the sharks, juxtaposed with the haphazard nature of the scene (the passers-by, the bicycle obscuring the third shark), makes a powerful and depressing statement about the use of these creatures as a commodity. HB: Striking image. Beautifully composed. GA: I appreciate the impersonal way the photo has been framed, ignoring faces, and portraying the dominating human element in the image in the form of trampling feet and wheels. The humans outnumber the dead sharks in the scene too, adding to the storytelling power. TW: The choice of black and white is an excellent one, placing the commodification of our natural world in sharp relief. The high angle tells a dramatic story of how shark species are dwarfed and stripped of dignity by human greed. The bicycle serves as a dividing symbol of a dismembered ecosystem. Sharp observation and on-feet thinking.