An aspiring South African photographer by name Kgaugelo Neville Ngomane, 19, has won the Young Environmental Photographer of the Year Award for his stunning photograph that captured a scene of two men trying to dehorn a fallen rhino.
At first glance, the image looks like the photographer has apprehended a moment of cruelty with two men removing the horn of a rhino as shards of the material go flying. But the photo by 19-year-old Ngomane reveals quite the opposite. It reflects on multiple attempts to save the rhino population in and around the country’s Kruger National Park from poaching.
His impressive shot was taken during a movement by the group Rhino Revolution to dehorn five of the animals in a nearby private reserve, and it was enough to win him the Young Environmental Photographer of the Year Award — a prize given by the International Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management.
“Winning this competition means a lot because I love photography. But I don’t just want to win. I want to make a difference. I hope this picture will make a lot of people see what we have to do to save our rhinos and it will make them support conservation.”— Neville Ngomane
Ngomane only managed to enter the competition through the aid of a charity organization known as Wild Shots Outreach, whose founder goal is to use photography to get young people who live close to the Kruger National Park more involved with what is happening in the park.
