More than a century ago elephants in the eastern Cape were systematically hunted – until only 16 were left. Today there are 650 elephants in the Addo Elephant National Park, the densest concentration of wild elephants anywhere on the planet. Addo also offers the Environmental photographer a great experience to watch the vast herds interacting in the most relaxed manner.

Addo National Park in South Africa has been an amazing conservation success story. As an Environmental Photographer living in Africa I strongly recommend visiting the park and reading Mitch Reardons’ book: Shaping Addo: The Story of a South African National Park.

The African continent may have been home to some 26 million elephants at the beginning of the 19th century. That number has since plummeted, becoming dangerously low in the past five decades, with the rise of poaching. Now there are as few as 415,000 elephants in Africa.

Environmental photographers document natural environments, and the changes in them. As a contemporary Environmental photographer in Africa I focus on landscape and wildlife photography in my home, Africa to create social awareness about the importance of conservation of wilderness areas.

My aim is to engage viewers with the environment so that they can form a connection with a physical place of conservation importance. All I can hope for is that people be moved by the sheer magnificence of the environment depicted and that these images play some part in highlighting the need to conserve the remaining wilderness areas that exist, not only in my small corner of the Western Cape, but in all of South Africa.

“Images have the power to affect how we feel about the natural world and therefore how we treat it.”
David Attenborough