Photographer Marcel Jurian de Jong from Assen has won prizes during the prestigious Silver Camera election. With his photo of a forester in a white suit grabbing a dead bird with a grab, he came second in the Nature and Science category.
The Silver Camera is the photo competition of the year for Dutch photographers. “I really feel like a winner, even if it is second place,” laughs De Jong. “More than five hundred photographers have submitted photos for this competition, so it is a great honor if you win a prize. It is the highest prize achievable for a photojournalist. I see this as a great appreciation.”
At the beginning of May, the Asser freelance photographer was asked by the Dagblad van het Noorden to urgently travel to De Onlanden. Hundreds of birds died here due to a bird flu outbreak. Forest ranger Bart Zwiers entered the nature reserve to clean up the dead birds, in order to prevent the spread of bird flu.
“I found the ranger there in a special white protective suit. He was holding a dead bird with a clip,” De Jong looks back. “As a photographer you want an image that is as clean as possible. The trick is to leave it out. You look for an image that is as calm as possible in which the message is conveyed immediately. That forester in a suit, that dead bird, it was actually best a grisly photo.”
Article continues below the photo