A cage holding a Cuban bullfinch hangs alongside a road, so that the bird becomes accustomed to the hubbub of street life and is therefore less likely to be distracted during a singing competition. “The pictures make it real,” says Karine Aigner of her Photojournalist Story Award-winning shots of captive songbirds in Cuba. With this assignment, Aigner says she wanted to make people think about the way we exploit wild animals for our wants and desires. “When you look at these photos, and you see how it really is, the smallness of the cages, you get a stronger sense of the reality for these animals,” she says.© Photograph By Karine Aigner, Wildlife Photographer of the Year
