Our Jury

Ami Vitale needs little introduction… She is one of the world’s most renowned wildlife photographers; she has received multiple awards (including the World Press Photo, on at least four occasions), and has been repeatedly published in the best international media, especially in National Geographic. Today, among many other projects, Ami runs Vital Impacts, a women-led non-profit project that uses art and storytelling to support people and organisations that protect our planet.

It is a great honour for us to have Ami on the Jury; having her vast experience in conservation photojournalism, and her unique photographic sensibility, will be a luxury for all participants.

Doug is a conservation and wildlife photojournalist who focuses on Australian issues. A Senior Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers, he is a four-time finalist in the Wildlife Photographer, inaugural winner of the WildScreen Panda Photo Story Awards and recently won the Big Picture Natural World Photography Competition’s Human/Nature category.

Believing people should focus on the issues they care about and those that are close to home, his recent work has focused on the conservation and animal welfare issues facing Australia’s platypus and the Grey-headed Flying-fox. 

His hope is that the images he takes and the information he shares, will inspire people to stop, think, and treat the world more kindly.

Jo-Anne is an award-winning photojournalist, sought-after speaker, photo editor, and the founder of We Animals Media. She has visited over sixty countries to document our complex relationship with animals. She is the author of three books: We Animals, Captive, and HIDDEN: Animals in the Anthropocene, and is the subject of the acclaimed Canadian documentary, The Ghosts in Our Machine. Jo-Anne’s photographs have been published and exhibited worldwide, and have received accolades from Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Humans and Nature, Nature Photographer of the Year, Big Picture, Picture of the Year International, and others. Jo-Anne has juried international photo competitions such as World Press Photo and Big Picture. She hails from Toronto, Canada.

From her early childhood days in Hamburg, Germany, Melissa Schäfer has viewed the world through her camera lens. With a background in creative and portrait photography she has always had a unique eye for the surroundings. A deep love for the Arctic and polar bears and a strong commitment to nature and the environment is a foundation for all her work. 

In 2020, Melissa and her partner Fredrik Granath published their book “Polar Tales.” Melissa founded the nonprofit “Mother” magazine, channeling the power of female photographers and storytellers worldwide. Her work has been published in The New York Times, National Geographic, GEO, and many others. Together with Fredrik and their Motherbear Productions, she organizes expeditions in the Arctic.

Lianna Nixon is an award-winning conservation storyteller, environmental science educator, and expedition guide. She specializes in stories located in the polar regions and the American West. Nixon is driven to tell stories that connect people to our planet using art-science narratives that empower community stakeholders.

Nixon received her Master’s in Education: Learning Sciences and Human Development from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her work explores how storytelling impacts learning about climate science and intersectional environmentalism. Today she works with scientists, educators, conservationists, and artists promoting art science narratives and connecting the public to science.

Lianna’s work has been published in GEO, CBS, ABC, Stern, Nature, PM, and many academic journals. Her work has been exhibited in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, and the United States. 

Adriana Claudia Sanz has lived in Chubut, Patagonia, Argentina since she was very young, where she developed a strong contact and bond with nature. Her mastery in the environment allows her to dedicate herself to caring for it and that is where she discovers photography.

Today she is dedicated to both passions. In her photos, she seeks to dignify the photographed subject by incorporating her artistic vision into each image, reflecting her interpretation of reality. She is a member of AFONA and Portfolio Natural; She is a speaker at congresses, a jury at competitions, she participates in exhibitions and activities to disseminate books and magazines. She several times awarded in international competitions.

Photographer for more than 40 years, he has focused on nature. To his early naturalist vocation, he added his studies and work as an ornithologist and scientific bird bander. He regularly collaborates in wildlife monitoring activities.

Sol de la Quadra-Salcedo trained as an architect at the Polytechnic University of Madrid (ETSAM), is an Expert in Landscape Design and Management at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) and is completing a Master’s in Social Communication of Scientific Research at the International University of Valencia (VIU). He learned from his teacher, the explorer and visionary Miguel de la Quadra-Salcedo, a legacy: “The Value of Adventure” to go beyond limits, feel and spread to Know, Respect and Protect our Nature.

His passion for translating the way of perceiving the environment of the living beings that surround us, together with the investigation of the latest technologies, since the beginning of the Internet, has led him to teach the youngest ways of looking at our nature from amazement.

She has collaborated multiple times with institutions of the highest prestige, such as National Geographic, the National Parks Network and the National Museum of Natural Sciences.

Arturo has been photographing wildlife for 25 years, specialising in polar regions and underwater photography. He has seen his images published in numerous media around the world, including National Geographic (international and Spanish editions), and awarded in some of the most prestigious competitions (SONY World Photography, Bird Photographer of the Year, MontPhoto, Memorial Maria Luisa, FotoFIO, International Photographer of the Year, Fine Art Photo Awards, etc). 

He has published seven books on wildlife photography, which have sold thousands of copies. He also had the honor of participating with his images in The Evidence Project, together with the best photographers in the world: Sebastiao Salgado, Ami Vitale, Steve Winter, Brian Skerry, among others. 

Since 2013, all the proceeds generated by sales of his books have been donated to charitable causes – these donations already exceed 160,000 euros.

Arturo is founder and chairman of the ADF Foundation for Sustainable Development. One of the Foundation’s core aims is to use the power of photography to increase everyone’s awareness of climate change and environmental protection. 

Co-founder of WildWatching Spain. Biologist by training, hobby and devotion, he studied Biological Sciences in Barcelona. Once he finished his training, he returned to the Cantabrian mountain range, the land of his origins. He trained in the field with many species, such as the red-legged partridge, lesser kestrel, great bustard, little bustard, little bustard, wolf, Bonelli’s eagle, etc. His work with the Cantabrian chamois in his early years, and with the Cantabrian capercaillie, with which he continues to work today, is particularly noteworthy.

A nature photographer since he was young, he has compiled an extensive photographic archive, especially of wildlife. He has won several awards and mentions in photographic contests, such as CAM, Planeta, FotoFIO, Fotoaves and Nature and Humans. Ornithologist and scientific bird bander, he combines his passion for photography with participation in citizen science and conservation projects. He is currently actively participating in the project for the protection of harriers in Segovia. On this campaign he has mounted a traveling photographic exhibition in different localities of the province.

David Jerez, a firefighter by profession, has two passions: photography and his family. At the age of 12, his father gave him his first camera, an analogue Olympus, which allowed him to start capturing the magnificent beauty of the wildlife of the Sierra de Madrid, his childhood love. 

Since 2010 he has been intensely dedicated to photography. In 2019 he joined the select collective Portfolio Natural, with which he has collaborated in the creation of several books such as “Pinceladas de luz”. He is also the author of the book “Yebes Esencia Natural”. His photographs are based on aesthetics and the protection and defence of the environment. 

He has received multiple awards: FotoFIO, FotoAves Calendario SEO/BirdLife de National Geographic, Delta Birding Festival, Fotonoja, Cádiz PhotoNature, Asferico, MontPhoto, Nature Photographer of the Year, AEFONA (overall winner Spanish Nature 2022), Memorial María Luisa 2023 and 2024. He won two categories in Nature and Humans 2023.