‘Desperate measures’ wins Kgaugelo international photo award
Kgaugelo Neville Ngomane's image, Desperate Measures, beat a total of more than 4 000 international entries to win the young environmental photographer of the year award in the international Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) photography competition.
LIMPOPO – Kgaugelo is a 19-year-old Wild Shots Outreach graduate from Bushbuckridge. His photograph of a rhino being de-horned was commended by the judges for the picture’s storytelling and photographic merit. The judges said that when the photo flashed on the screen, there was a sharp intake of breath around the judging room because of the power that the image possesses. “It has been a dream for me to win this kind of competition. I did not plan to enter for the competition. I had the photos for sometime and my mentor, Mike Kendrick, helped me enter,” he said.
Kgaugelo took a gap year this year, to decide what he wanted to study. He explained that photography was always at the top of his list. “I have always been interested in photography but the passion to pursue it evolved in 2015. When Wild Shots Outreach visited our school last year, I jumped at the opportunity to become part of the outreach,” he explained. He has decided to make wild life documentaries in line with his passion for photography.
Wild Shots Outreach is a Hoedspruit-based NPO that won South Africa’s prestigious SANParks Kudu Award for environmental education and capacity building in 2017. The organisation aims to engage young people from disadvantaged communities in wildlife and wild places through photography. High school students from government schools and unemployed young people who border the Greater Kruger Park are prioritised.
The outreach introduces the youth to nature and helps inspire and raise their aspirations as well as teaches them new skills and focus. Wild Shots Outreach founder and director, Mike Kendrick, said: “This award is a fantastic accolade for Neville, for Wild Shots Outreach, for the communities and all the young people I work with. We hope that images like Neville’s will capture the imaginations of communities like his. Can photos such as this one bring people a better understanding of the drastic measures used to conserve the iconic wildlife which we hold so precious? The young people I work with have developed pride in their images, their stories, in themselves and in their natural heritage – a natural heritage which has previously been hard for them to access.” Kendrick expressed his gratitude to Rhino Revolution, who invited Wild Shots Outreach students to attend and document how they de-horn wild rhinos on a private reserve.
