Forensic Science Fights Wildlife Trafficking
Britta Jaschinski's project 'Every Crime Leaves a Trace' documents the illegal wildlife trade and forensic techniques to combat it. Using a newly developed magnetic powder, forensic investigator Mark Moseley of London's Metropolitan Police dusts for human fingerprints on an elephant tusk confiscated at Heathrow Airport. One image shows a green sea turtle with a human handprint, demonstrating how forensic evidence can catch poachers and traffickers. The poaching industry is valued at $23 billion (£17 billion).
Indigenous Herbalism Documented by Young Photographer
Filbert Minja won the David Wolf Kaye Future Potential award for photographers under 25. His series 'Roots of Healing' documents Indigenous herbalists in Tanzania's Kilimanjaro and Arusha regions. Minja approaches herbalism as a real, everyday practice rooted in environment and cultural tradition, honouring knowledge passed through generations via touch and close attention to nature.
Permafrost Thaw Threatens Arctic Communities
Natalya Saprunova's 'Shifting Seasons' documents permafrost thaw and coastal erosion in Canada's Northwest Territories. A local hunter stands on snowmelt tundra using decoy geese to lure birds, crucial for Inuit subsistence. Another image shows a ringed seal stranded on a sand spit on Banks Island due to rapidly melting sea ice. Thawing permafrost releases sediment carrying mercury, found in seal fat, threatening marine life and human health.
Indigenous Resistance Against Coal Mining in India
Payal Kakkar's 'Lives of Extraction' documents the Khairwar Indigenous community's resistance to coal mining in Singrauli, India's 'energy capital'. Using gum oil printing with mining tailings, the stains of contamination become part of the image, hand-embroidered with green thread symbolising lost forests. Kakkar photographed women staging Gandhi-style sit-ins demanding fair compensation. In December 2025, families were forcibly relocated by mining company operatives without resettlement plans.
Mining Pollution in the Andes
Marco Garro's 'Quiulacocha' investigates environmental and human costs of mining at Cerro de Pasco, Peru, one of the world's most polluted places at 4,300 metres. Garro collected mining tailings from former Lake Quiulacocha, now filled with toxic waste, using them in photographic development. The stains and textures echo contamination in local people's blood, soil, and water.
Flood Displacement and Climate Migration
Gideon Mendel's 'Drowning World' film documents communities living through flooding and climate displacement. His precise, unsettling compositions frame people within flooded homes, meeting the camera with dignity. Mohammad Rakibul Hasan's 'The Vanishing Childhood' follows Mohammad Saown, a teenage boy from Bangladesh's haor wetlands forced to migrate to brickfields after monsoon floods destroy farmland. Labourers balance stacks of bricks, enduring grueling conditions.
Traumatic Memory and River Healing
Zillah Bowes' 'Here Now There Then' is a two-channel film using analogue photographs animated by frame variation to explore traumatic memory and the healing effect of proximity to a river. The Earth Photo Awards is a partnership between RGS, Parker Harris, and Photoworks. Shortlisted works are on view at the Royal Geographical Society, London, until 24 July, with an interactive event Summit Photo from 17-19 July.
