AMBOSELI ELEPHANTS

Since my first visit in 2021, Amboseli National Park has profoundly shaped both my appreciation of elephants and my photography. There is nowhere else quite like it for photographing elephants in Amboseli, and it has become one of my annual go-to destinations.

Thanks to the extraordinary work of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants, decades of research allow individual elephants to be recognised and followed. Iconic Tusker elephants such as Craig, Vronsky, Teejay, and Michael are among the most photographed Amboseli elephants, and each year I seek them out with my expert guide, Eric Ole Kalama. Time spent with these giants is humbling, and my goal on every visit is to capture the Big Tuskers in a fresh, more intimate way.

I’ve written in detail about my quest to build a fine-art, black-and-white portfolio documenting Amboseli’s Tusker elephants here. Since publishing that blog, I returned to Amboseli in October and was thrilled to add new images of Craig, Vronsky, and Michael to this collection, Amboseli Elephants.

One elephant especially close to my heart is Vronsky. I first photographed him during one of the worst droughts to hit Amboseli and eastern Kenya in 2022. He was painfully thin, and there were real fears he wouldn’t survive. Eric would leave bales of hay whenever we encountered him. Since then, I’ve been fortunate to photograph Vronsky many times. My images Vronsky From Below I & II, taken in February and October this year, show just another example of his resilience as he is now down to one giant tusk after losing his right tusk in the summer, likely due to decay.

Vronsky continues to endure, but his story reflects the immense challenges facing elephants in Amboseli, particularly the great Tusker elephants whose size and age make survival increasingly difficult.

This collection I hope serves as an artistic tribute to the Elephants in Amboseli, and each print sold in The Print Store helps to raise awareness about their conservation through my support of Amboseli Trust for Elephants.

So please explore my gallery and appreciate the timeless elegance of these gentle giants in black and white.