Content provided in partnership with

Frans Lanting

Natural History, Dec, 2000

I really enjoy being out in the wilderness; a bad day in the field is better than a good day in the office. Animals change me. They communicate a lot with body language and thus are very sensitive to what others are demonstrating with their bodies. I go to great lengths to illustrate relevant connections between people and animals, be they positive or negative. I live eye to eye with them and witness not only their ordinary lives but also their most intimate and most desperate moments. Often there is danger, such as the time I was photographing in the midst of male elephant seals, some weighing as much as three tons, on a California beach, or the time I followed East African lions, living as an auxiliary member of the pride. They accepted me to a point at which it became possible to get within a few feet of them at night, and I spent hours taking shots of the lions as they devoured a giraffe's carcass.

Most Popular Articles in Reference: The importance of understanding organizational culture; Credit card attitudes and behaviors of college students; What factors attract foreign direct investment?; Libraries Need Relationship Marketing - mutual interest marketing concept, ...; How to set performance goals: employee reviews are more than annual critiques; More »

I try to control situations only to a certain extent, leaving the door open to chance by allowing the animals choices or leeway, which forces me to improvise and react. It becomes more of an interaction than a one-way street. My pictures also show the context within which these animals live--not just the totemic large animals but the little critters, too, which are often overlooked. All are expressions of vital ecosystems.

When I was a child, I had a favorite book about a boy who is shrunk by a magician and joins a flock of wild geese. The leader shows him how animals have been hunted and persecuted by humans. "Go back as our ambassador," he tells the boy, "and tell people that animals, too, are entitled to their place in the world." That story hit a deep chord in me. I became a mediator who stays with wild animals, then reports back to my own species through my photographs.

Frans Lanting

Natural History, Dec, 2000

Find Research Guides for:

Find Featured Titles for: Health

Most Popular Articles in Reference

Most Popular Publications in Reference