AFRICA

When Laurent Baheux photographs animals, he becomes a portrait photographer who seeks to capture the originality of his subject. ‘’I photograph instinctively, with my guts. For me, all that matters is the encounter’’, says the man who has been traveling through wild territories for more than 20 years and as close as possible to wild animals in their own environment.

With his dense and contrasted use of black and white, Laurent plays with shadow and light and centers his attention on posture, composition, material or texture. His settings are snapshots of life, simple and tender photographs of the daily lives of animals. ‘’I am not a naturalist or a behaviorist. I react on instinct and I work with my gut. If I choose to take a photo, it is first of all because the scene prompted a spark, an emotion. ’’

Elephants’ silhouettes, a contemplative lion, a lazy leopard, a laughing hyena or a hippopotamus hidden under the aquatic grasses, his images are first and foremost the reflection of an incarnation. Through his singular approach entirely devoted to the subject’s personality, Laurent brings us closer to animals in spite of ourselves because he allows us to see them as sensitive individuals; entirely focused towards their survival and that of their species, inevitably confronted with the greatest extinction of our history, undeniable consequence of the madness of men.