Loic was not only the youngest prize winner, but the youngest entrant in the entire photo contest, which saw 10,668 works entered.
His photo, “Starfish to be Rescued”, was taken at Nai Harn Beach. The stunning image was awarded third place in the nomination “Nature through the eyes of children”.
Zeyu Zhai of China won the category with “Run”, while Zitian Tian of Spain won second place with “The magpie forecasts good news”.
Loic’s mum, Nicole, said “It’s not only a great opportunity to widen Loic’s horizon learning from other award-winning photographers and artists, but also a life-time memory to keep the international wildlife festival photo book in his bookcase.”
Loic’s proud achievement was announced at the “Golden Turtle” Festival Opening and Prize Winner Award Ceremony on Oct 15 at the New Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, where his photo was put on display.
The International Wildlife Festival "Golden Turtle" is the largest educational, environmental and scientific project that provides an opportunity to learn about the beauty of the world of wildlife.
It is one of the top three main wildlife photography competitions in the world. Over 16 years of operation, the festival has brought together more than 29,000 photographers from 152 countries.
The organisers explain that the project’s “spirit and philosophy are aimed at changing the ecological consciousness and behaviour of people through love of nature and understanding the importance of its conservation. The event is the largest educational, environmental and scientific project in Russia that gives the opportunity to learn about the beauty of the wild world.”
The panel of judges for the contest is truly international, comprising professional wildlife photographers from around the world, including Spain, Belgium, Australian, Argentina, the UK, Greece, Switzerland, India, Russia, Japan and Italy.
After sifting through the initial 10,668 entries, the judges whittled the list down to 1,292 works in the “preselection results”. Of those, only 190 were named semi-finalists, with the final 39 announced as prize winners.
The “Photographer of the Year” was Norbert Kaszas of Hungary.
The judges are stringent with the rules of entry. Several entries were rejected, and publicly named, for violation of the competition’s code of ethics.
Loic’s winning entry will be published in a gallery of all finalists’ entries posted online.
He will also see his photo published in the official printed Golden Turtle Wildlife Photo Book of all winners’ photos.
Loic’s award-winning photo and a video of the award presentation ceremony can be seen on his Instagram page.
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