Other lives

These portraits are born from encounters with animals across different places, landscapes and species. Most of these encounters have happened on foot — without barriers, often unplanned, and with no certainty of what might emerge. To encounter an animal this way, in its own environment, is an experience that can be profoundly moving. Through my camera, I seek to capture more than an animal’s appearance — a gaze, a presence, an individual life.

The images speak of shared moments, often born from an unexpected encounter: a crossing of gazes, a fleeting exchange of thoughts and energies. They hold a moment of shared history — two lives meeting, however briefly, and becoming part of one another’s story.

Many of the species I have encountered are listed as threatened or endangered. Their decline is driven by human activities — from illegal wildlife trade to the destruction and fragmentation of their habitats. Behind every threatened species, however, are individual lives: beings with their own presence, experiences and place in the world.

Our lives are entangled. What affects one species ultimately reaches the others. We share not only the same planet, but interconnected worlds in which every life touches another.

For me, these images are also about coexistence. They invite us to look beyond species and to recognise the lives, relationships and worlds that exist alongside our own.

Perhaps coexistence begins with the willingness to truly see.