Marsel van Oosten

Cypress trees on a misty morning on one of the countless bayous of the
Atchafalaya basin, Louisiana, the largest US wetland. Oosten is a professional nature photographer from the Netherlands and a regular contributor to National Geographic magazine. The judges said his photographs were “elegant, beautifully composed and showed wonderful use of light”.

Biography

Marsel van Oosten is a professional nature photographer from The Netherlands. His images are best known for his graphic approach to composition, the direct result of his previous career as an art director in advertising. In his work he tries to simplify, to get rid of the extraneous: Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

His images are featured in galleries and museums, and he is a regular contributor for National Geographic magazine. In addition to winning the overall title International Nature Photographer of the Year in the IPA two times in a row, his awards include First Prizes in the European Wildlife Photographer of the Year, the Travel Photographer of the Year, and the Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

Together with his wife Daniella he runs Squiver, a company that organizes specialized wildlife and landscape photography tours and workshops for small groups of all experience levels to spectacular locations worldwide.

What the judges thought....

These two portfolios require very different skills to shoot but both are elegant, beautifully composed and show wonderful use of light. The first portfolio of the cypress trees in the Atchafalaya Basin, Louisiana, USA, is subtle and textural contrasting with the strong, punchy, graphic style of the portfolio of great white pelicans, shot on a boat in the Atlantic Ocean near Walvis Bay, Namibia. The detail in both portfolios enhances the images and the contrasting styles.

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