Award-Winning Wildlife Photos Coming to Eden Project This Summer

What does it take to capture the perfect wildlife shot? For one photographer, the answer was ten years of patience in an abandoned Namibian town.

The Eden Project has announced that the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition is returning to Cornwall this summer, alongside the launch of its second Wildflower Photographer of the Year competition. Both form part of the attraction’s 25th anniversary celebrations.

📷(c) Ralph Pace, Wildlife Photographer of the Year

A Decade in the Making

The exhibition, on loan from the Natural History Museum in London, will be on display from Friday 5th June until Sunday 6th September across the Outdoor Gardens and Core Building. Entry is included in the price of admission.

This year’s competition broke records, drawing 60,636 entries from 113 countries and territories. First launched in 1965, the awards are considered one of the world’s most prestigious photography events.

Among the highlights heading to Cornwall is Wim van den Heever’s Grand Title Award-winning shot of a brown hyena in the abandoned town of Kolmanskop, Namibia. The image was the result of a decade-long effort to capture the moment.

Andrea Dominizi took the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year title for After the Destruction, a detailed portrait of the longhorn beetle Morimus asper.

The Nuveen People’s Choice Award, which attracted more than 85,000 votes worldwide, went to Josef Stefan for Flying Rodent. The image captures a young Iberian lynx tossing a rodent into the air before killing and eating it.

📷2025 WFPOTY Amateur Highly Commended - Emma Eccles - Sea thrift at Trebarwith Strand, Cornwall

£1,000 Up for Grabs

Running alongside the exhibition, the Eden Project’s National Wildflower Centre will open entries on Friday 29th May for the second Wildflower Photographer of the Year competition, a free UK-wide contest run in partnership with CWG.

The competition is open to young people aged 13 to 17 and adults, with amateur and professional categories. Cash prizes of £500 and £1,000 are on offer respectively.

Entries must feature British wildflowers only and be taken anywhere in the UK between 1st October 2025 and 30th September 2026. Entrants are asked to include the county where the image was taken.

The competition will again be judged by horticulture photographers Clive Nichols and Molly Holman.

Simon Townsend, General Manager at the Eden Project, said: “It’s an honour to be hosting the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition for the third year running, as well as opening entries for Eden’s second Wildflower Photographer of the Year competition. Wildflowers and wildlife range from mighty to miniscule wonders, which together have an enormous impact on our landscapes, our existence and on how we feel.

“Our mission as a charity is to inspire wonder, hope and positive action for the planet, and through both of these cultural moments, we hope to encourage visitors of all ages to slow down, look closely at the nature around them and consider the role we all play in caring for it.”

📷(c) Parham Pourahmad, Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Why Wildflowers Matter

The wildflower competition was launched in 2025 to mark 25 years of the National Wildflower Centre. The UK has lost an estimated 97 per cent of its wildflower habitats since the Second World War, and the contest highlights the role wildflowers play in supporting biodiversity and pollinators.

Its debut year attracted more than 500 entries, with photographers encouraged to notice the wildflowers growing on roadside verges, in urban spaces, meadows and nature reserves.

Winning and shortlisted wildflower images will be exhibited at the Eden Project from November, while 2025’s winners will go on display at Eden Dock in Canary Wharf this July as part of the Wharf’s Nature Week, which begins on 13th July.

📷2025 WFPOTY Amateur Winner - Damien Walmsley - Poppy Field in Kinver, Staffordshire

More to Come

Elsewhere on site, a mini exhibition of botanical illustrations from South Africa’s Grootbos Florilegium will go on show in the South Africa garden of the Mediterranean Biome from 5th June.

The display comes ahead of a major Eden-wide Florilegium exhibition planned for spring 2027, which will bring together illustrations from the Grootbos Florilegium, Hawai’i’s National Tropical Botanical Garden Florilegium and the Eden Project’s own Florilegium collection, recorded and preserved over the charity’s 25 years.

📷2025 WFPOTY Professional Highly Commended - Edyta Rice - Bluebells at Emsworthy, Dartmoor

📷2025 WFPOTY Professional Winner - Justsin Minns - Wild garlic in Chalkney Wood, Essex

📷2025 WFPOTY Young People Highly Commended - Alex Iftode - Beach bindweed at Perran Sands, Cornwall

📷2025 WFPOTY Young People Winner - M. Stanway - Cornish Heather

📷(c) Leana Kuster, Wildlife Photographer of the Year

📷(c) Simone Baumeister, Wildlife Photographer of the Year

📷(c) Amit Eshel, Wildlife Photographer of the Year

📷(c) Bence Máté, Wildlife Photographer of the Year

📷(c) Bidyut Kalita, Wildlife Photographer of the Year

📷(c) Kesshav Vikram, Wildlife Photographer of the Year