Photography to encourage people to save species.
Have you met Alfie Bowen? A young wildlife english photographer with a very defined concept of art and animal photography.
-I’ve always had a keen interest in animals. My first word was ‘Mallard’, referencing the duck species, and since then that interest has grown into the work I do today. I’ve grown up hearing about the plight of the world’s wildlife caused by the human race and it quickly became apparent that I had to play my part in trying to halt the shocking statistics I was reading every day. Obviously, it is impossible for one person to change an entire world’s mistakes, but that’s where my photography comes into play.
Each and every time I pick up my cameras I have one main aim: to capture the animals in a way that will compel people to change their ways. To go away, dig deeper into the animal and it’s problems, and try to encourage people to save the species. For an image to have the desired impact it has to be visually powerful and to achieve this I always enter the field with a series of adjectives and feelings in my mind that I wish the image to represent, and if it doesn’t have the impact required then it does not see the light of day.
There are more images taken every day than there are people in the world and so there is no place for visually weak imagery. I always aim for my images to be considered as pieces of art rather than as photographs – they should always be good enough to hang above a fireplace, be memorable and make people think.
I like my images to have a strong composition that make’s the subject the heart of the image; if a blade of grass grabs the viewer’s attention ahead of the subject then the work is, quite frankly, useless to me and my style because a blade of grass does not tell a story. It is the subject that has the emotion, the beauty and the interest to change opinions and so it is vital that this is the centre of attention. Because of my individual style and constant search for perfection, a lot of time and patience is invested into each photograph.
I work on the basis that ten visually strong and impactful images per year is better than several thousand weak and, therefore, useless images.
Read full article here
Available photographs in our SHOP
