Wild
I photograph Africa’s wildlife with a sincere hope that you will see these majestic animals the same way I do: as not so different from us. I take these photos in the same way I would photograph a human being, waiting for the right pose that will reveal their true spirit, the moment in which they are most like themselves.
I spend much of my time waiting, but it’s a beautiful wait. Back home, I miss the times when all my thoughts are focused on when exactly the beautiful lioness will lift her head from the golden savannah. I miss waiting for the elephant to emerge from the bushes, so that he may stand in full majesty for his portrait. In those moments, I am fully content, sitting near these beautiful creatures, sharing the same space and moment with them. I photograph the lions, mountain gorillas and elephants, and other megafauna of Africa, because they reveal to me my own humanity. My interest lies not in photographing them in a state of action, but in a state of being.
Guhonda is the largest silverback mountain gorilla in the world. Tracking Guhonda and his family, and finally finding them lying around, playing, eating peacefully in a sanctuary of Rwanda's Virunga mountains was an experience I will never forget. But there’s a nervous air in the expression of this noble King. His family and friends have been slaughtered for bush meat, his habitats are shrinking and the future of his entire species is uncertain.
I urge you to look deep into the eyes of these majestic creatures - and you will undeniably recognize that we are one and the same - and with each one of them that is killed off, we die a little ourselves.