The photograph
The image shows two male Alpine ibex standing on their rear legs and fighting, in snow-covered mountains close to Italy's border with France. It was taken during a family outing in spring, when Bee spotted the animals and photographed them.
Ibex fight by rising onto their hind legs and bringing their horns down against each other, which means the moment worth photographing is a moment that does not last. The picture is a piece of timing more than of equipment, and timing is the part of wildlife photography that cannot be bought.
The competition she entered
Wildlife Photographer of the Year is run by the Natural History Museum in London and took 38,575 entries in its 2022 edition. The young competition runs in age bands, and Bee won the band for photographers aged ten and under.
The grand title that year went to Karine Aigner of the United States, for a photograph of cactus bees. The winning images are shown in the museum's online gallery. A child competing in the youngest band is judged against other children, but exhibited in the same programme as the adult winners.
The animal in the frame
The Alpine ibex is a better subject than it first appears. The species came close to extinction in the early 1800s and has since recovered to more than 50,000 animals in the region, which makes a photograph of two of them fighting in the snow a picture of a conservation result as much as of a fight.
That is the argument the competition exists to make. The Natural History Museum is a scientific institution, and the pictures it rewards are judged partly on what they document. A child's holiday photograph of two ibex is also a record of a population that was nearly lost.
What is documented — and what is not
The firm facts are the category, the year, her country, the subject of the photograph, the approximate location, the season in which it was taken, the size of the field, the organiser and the grand-title winner.
Almost everything personal is missing. There is no exact age beyond the ten-and-under band, no year of birth, no home town, no school, no camera detail, no title for the photograph as the museum lists it, and no quotation from Bee herself. The record used for this page is a children's news report rather than the museum's own citation, and no second source has been used to corroborate it.
Why the youngest category is not a consolation prize
Competitions for young photographers are sometimes read as encouragement rather than assessment. This one is not built that way. It sits inside a competition that received 38,575 entries in a single year and is judged by an institution that has been collecting natural history since the eighteenth century.
Winning the ten-and-under band means a panel at that institution looked at a photograph taken by a small child on a family walk and decided it was the best of its year. The animals were wild, the light was whatever the mountain offered, and the moment lasted seconds. What the category records is not potential but a photograph that already worked.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elisabeth Anisimow | United States | Living paintings sold at 11 for $2,500-$5,000 each | Age 11 |
| Carmel Bechler | Israel | Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2023 | Age 16 |
| Andrea Dominizi | Italy | A beetle in the corner of the frame, logging machinery behind it, and a wo | Age 17 |
| Ekaterina Bee | Italy | Two ibex reared up in the snow on a family walk, and a child under ten pho | — |
| Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas | Germany | Winning Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2024 | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Won the 10 and Under category of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2022
- The photograph shows two male Alpine ibex fighting in snow near Italy's border with France
- The competition is run by the Natural History Museum in London and drew 38,575 entries in 2022
- Karine Aigner took the grand title that year with a photograph of cactus bees
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No exact age, year of birth, home town or school in these sources
- No camera or technical detail, and no quotation from Bee herself
- The museum's own title for the photograph is not given in the source used here
- Only one source is used, and it is a secondary children's news report rather than the museum's citation
Questions people ask about Ekaterina Bee
How old is Ekaterina Bee?
No source used here gives her exact age or year of birth. She won the category for photographers aged ten and under in 2022.
What did she photograph?
Two male Alpine ibex standing on their rear legs and fighting, in snow-covered mountains near Italy's border with France.
What competition did she win?
The 10 and Under category of Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2022, run by the Natural History Museum in London.
How many entries were there?
38,575 across the whole competition that year.
Who won the overall prize?
Karine Aigner of the United States, for a photograph of cactus bees.
When did she take the picture?
In spring, during a family trip in the mountains. The exact date is not given in the source used here.
Where is Ekaterina Bee now?
No source in this record states what she is doing now. The documented trail ends with the 2022 awards.
Is Ekaterina Bee on Wikipedia?
She has no article of her own in the sources gathered here.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Bee’s story?
What animals did Ekaterina Bee photograph?
Which institution runs Wildlife Photographer of the Year?
How many entries did the 2022 competition receive?
Sources
- 2022 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards — News for Kids, 2022-10-20
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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