A picture of Angelina Jolie covered in bees has become one of the winners of the Siena International Photo Awards 2022. Dan Winters’ image, which saw the “Maleficent” actress pose with the creatures for a National Geographic piece to highlight her involvement in the Women for Bees programme for World Bee Day last year, won the Fascinating Faces and Characters category at the annual competition.
Along with the winning photos of the Creative Photo Awards, Drone Photo Awards, and the solo exhibitions of the late Danish Siddiqui, images from all 12 categories will be on display at the Siena Awards Festival in Italy until 20 November.
The overall winner at the Siena Awards was “Woman from Evia”, a shocking photo taken by Greek photographer Konstantinos Tsakalidis featuring an 81-year-old woman’s plight as forest fire flames grew closer to her house.
Another notable winner was “Finding Nemo” by Jonne Roriz, which took first place in the Sport in Action category and features a small fish splashing out of the water while Brazilian Ana Marcela Cunha swam her way to victory in the 10km marathon swimming final at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Angelina previously revealed she couldn’t shower for several days before the shoot – which required her to stand completely still for 18 minutes – because she had to smell as natural as possible.
She said, “It was so funny to be in hair and makeup and wiping yourself with pheromone. We couldn’t shower for three days before. Because they told me, ‘If you have all these different scents, shampoos and perfumes and things, the bee doesn’t know what you are.’ Then you put a few things up your nose and in your ears so you don’t give them as many holes to climb in.”
And the 47-year-old star said it felt “lovely to be connected to these beautiful creatures.” She explained, “You have to be really still and in your body, in the moment, which is not easy for me.”
“I think part of the thought behind it was, this creature is seen as dangerous sometimes or stinging. So how do we just be with it? The intention is we share this planet. We are affected by each other. This is what it should feel like and it really did, and I felt very honoured and very lucky to have the experience.”
