Bheki Zwane

South African National Parks - General Manager: Sales & Marketing

I am a passionate marketer and presently heading Sales and Marketing for SANParks. Nature is my first love and my job makes it easy for me to fall deeper in love with it. Since I was young I was told, every picture tells a thousand words and being a judge in this competition is certainly exposing me to a thousand stories told passionately by the lovers of nature.

I look at every picture with a poetic eye and my amateur photographic experience complements the understanding of the story told. In my high school days and whilst studying at a tertiary level I earned good pocket money taking photos at weddings, parties and graduation ceremonies for people in the neighbourhood, little did I know that later in life I would be able to use that skill in judging pictorial stories told by passionate visitors to our arid national parks.

Having spent time in the arid parks myself, appreciating the landscape, flora and fauna, I knew that if we invited people from all walks of life to submit their captured experiences in this competition, we were going to be overwhelmed by the response. Indeed the people of the world responded amazingly and I have been wowed by the passion and depth expressed by the captured experiences. I searched for the experiences that convey the unique nature of each category and park. As a marketer I also looked at what special elements hook visitors to our arid parks and what it is that we need to do at SANParks to facilitate the continuous enjoyment of those elements.

That’s me folks… I just love your photographs.