Eco-and wildlife photographer
As an author whose vision has been formed over the last thirty years of my life, I have chosen to communicate this vision in a language that I trust many on this planet will understand.
The choice to make Battle for life without assistance from others – apart from my team workers - including publishing it myself, wasn’t the easiest one in the short term. However, from a creative point of view, it was decidedly the most rewarding, primarily because of my deep sense of the value of life. I did not, therefore, allow any economic, political or religious influences to cloud my vision and thus, as it appears in the 700 pages, my vision is represented as purely as possible.
Over my travels of the last twenty years, most of my supporters have asked me to do my own thing, in my own way and I have always tried to be loyal to this objective – together, of course, with my basic passion for all living creatures. Through my work I am not simply saying ‘I saw it with my own eyes and I raised my camera each time so that what I saw could enrich my vision’; I am building up my experiences piece by piece, in order to create one big whole through which I hope to complete the puzzle of our eco-system and its interactions.
In order to remain aware of what I might term the ‘complete and unrestricted version’ of what is necessarily a limited catalogue, I have tried to mirror myself. However, I was born in a part of the world where the strength of the economy creates a much higher level, on balance, than that of ecology as a whole. Sitting back and doing nothing while the deterioration of our ecological basis of life increased exponentially wasn’t my style. I felt driven to do something to help find solutions that can benefit not only this generation, but all those following. But at the same time I had to stay true to my roots and the city lifestyle that had been mine since childhood. This has enabled me to recount my journeys with a sense of reality, overlaid with adventures and magic. The Amazon and its inhabitants are truly magical and through my work I have tried to represent this, as proof that this eco-system is one of the richest on earth. And I am not the only one – most people in the world agree with this conclusion, and so we all have a powerful reason to protect our planet’s most natural purification asset.
My book does not aim to point the finger at anyone in particular, unless we consider it absolutely necessary. But, working with others, I have tried to suggest solutions, so that we can all have a clear view of what is really going on in our world. This world, this globe is so unique, thanks to its different climate zones – but nowadays these are changing so rapidly that the notorious notion global warming has resulted. All life forms are adapted to one or more climate zones and are quite capable of continuing to adapt and evolve in response to change. But it is the seemingly uncontrollable speed of global warming that means that most of the life forms on earth are coming under serious threat – some even vanishing before anybody knows of their existence.
My objective was to document the wonder of our world, through my many photographs of extremely endangered areas, animals and natives. This life work will be published in two parts, and supporters of life who love nature will be able to buy the result in one full colour case that represents both life on earth and our love for it. Battle for life will be released in November 2010. You can look forward to enjoying its inspiring vision.
