Self-Taught Wildlife Photographer Produces Amazing Shots

Nature Photographer Incredible Laurent Baheux’s Career Began as a Sports Journalist!

Laurent Baheux is an award-winning French wildlife photographer. He is known for his magnificent, high-contrast shots of African wildlife. His work includes portraits and some more distant shots, but most portraits.

I feel less danger photographing wild animals than living with civilized people – Laurent Baheux

With all the recognition and admiration his work generates, one would be forgiven for thinking this talented gent spent years in school, studying the art of photography.

Actually, Baheux is self-taught. He started as a sports journalist. It was in this capacity that he found he often had to shoot pictures of his subjects himself.

Ultimately, photography became his passion. For the last 15 years he has traveled the African continent documenting the animals there. He uses black and white film, and large lenses, in order to capture the detail and the contrast without intruding on the animals.

The black and white photos, with their intricate details remind us of the work of Ansel Adams, even if the subject matter is extremely different. By choosing to work in black and white, he forces us to re-evaluate, and look more closely at the animals within the photographs.

Image Credit: Reticulated Giraffe Shattered, Kenya, 2013 by Laurent Baheux

The photographer is also seeking to help his subjects by being active in several different agencies, including the Word Wildlife Fund, the GoodPlanet Foundation, and serving as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme’s anti-poaching initiative.

This is definitely a man we can admire for his photographic skills as well as his dedication to the planet, and the animals that share it with us.

Image Credit: Rhinos Quartet, Kenya, 2013 by Laurent Baheux

---

Read the entire article by Morenike Adebayo on IFL Science.

Learn more about Laurent Baheux, the self-taught wildlife photographer, and the animals he photographs.

All photos by Laurent Baheux.