If there’s one event that strips away the gloss of Instagram-friendly nature photography and instead dives deep into the reality of working on the frontline of environmental storytelling, it’s WildPhotos.
Back this year with a bold new line-up, the much-loved symposium returns, this year at the British Library in London, and online, on Friday 17 October – and it’s shaping up to be one of the most dynamic and thought-provoking editions yet.
Organized in partnership with Wildscreen and Wildlife Photographer of the Year, WildPhotos 2025 will feature fifteen globally recognized photographers and filmmakers, each offering a personal glimpse into the craft, ethics, and impact behind some of the world’s most striking visual narratives. It’s a day that reveals just how layered and demanding this kind of work really is, where questions and discussions of aesthetics, responsibility, and storytelling constantly collide.
I attended last year’s WildPhotos and came away feeling completely recharged, not just as a photographer, but as someone trying to understand where creativity fits within the environmental conversation. One moment that’s stayed with me since was listening to Evgenia Arbugaeva speak about her transition from photographer to filmmaker. It was raw, honest, and beautifully articulated; a talk that shows the long and winding road behind the final output.
This year’s speakers are drawn from across nine countries, with names like David Doubilet, Rena Effendi, Jasper Doest, Melissa Groo, Fernando Faciole, and Rachel Bigsby among those confirmed.
What makes WildPhotos so distinctive is the range of perspectives. There are sessions focused on working from home, where photographers document the animals and ecologies just outside their doorsteps. Others will explore how human relationships shape the stories we tell through conflict, community, and unexpected proximity to the natural world.
One of the most anticipated moments is likely to be the panel discussion on conservation photography, a topic that has grown increasingly urgent in recent years. With Roz Kidman Cox chairing and insights from Melissa Groo and Jasper Doest, it promises to go beyond familiar talking points and instead challenge how we use photography not only to witness but to advocate. As Groo put it in a previous interview, "Photographers have a responsibility to the subjects they portray, especially when those subjects can’t speak for themselves."
Then come the headliners. David Doubilet needs little introduction; his underwater photographs for National Geographic have shaped how generations understand the ocean and its fragility. With more than 26,000 hours spent beneath the surface, he’s as much an archivist of the sea as he is a photographer.
Karine Aigner, meanwhile, brings an equally powerful but very different lens. Her work centers on human-wildlife relationships, often with an emotional weight that lingers long after the image is seen. In 2022, she won the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Grand Title, only the fifth woman to do so in over four decades.
The event also arrives just days after the winners of the 61st Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition are announced and the Natural History Museum’s annual exhibition opens, adding to what is already a landmark week for wildlife storytelling in the UK capital. "This year’s WildPhotos programme is a powerful reflection of our shared belief—alongside Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Focused on Nature—that storytelling can shift perspectives and spark change," said Lucie Muir, CEO of Wildscreen. "From intimate portraits of backyard wildlife to bold investigations into human–nature relationships, the 2025 line-up offers an unmissable journey guided by those pushing the boundaries of conservation photography."
WildPhotos 2025 will take place on Friday, October 17, at the British Library in London and online via stream. Tickets are now available via the official Wildscreen website.
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