What is the most memorable experience you had photographing a mammal?
I find this question surprisingly difficult to answer, because to me every animal is so much more than just an animal. It is an individual, living a life that will never be lived in exactly the same way again. Every encounter is unique. Sometimes it becomes a kind of silent interaction, if the animal is aware of my presence and gradually accepts that I am there. Other times, it feels like being allowed a brief glimpse into a life that I can only partly understand.
I believe we humans often underestimate animals. They are not human, and we should not pretend that they are, but that does not mean they lack emotions, relationships or empathy. Through my camera, I have witnessed playfulness, tenderness, sibling rivalry, curiosity, grief and courage. So many of the things we like to imagine belong only to us.
Because of that, it is hard for me to single out one moment as more memorable than another. I think instead of the quiet morning when I watched beavers going about their lives around their lodge. I think of fox cubs wrestling and playing in the evening light. I think of the time I sat very close to a group of wild boar, listening to them grunt and communicate as they searched for food. I think of young red squirrels discovering the world, of hares chasing one another under the moonlight, and of a young moose staring at me with such curiosity that I found myself wondering what it thought I was.
I think of the tenderness of a roe deer doe with her fawns, but also of the desperate determination with which she tried to keep a fox away from them. The lives of wild animals are often about survival. It is eat or be eaten. But that does not make them cruel or malicious. They are simply trying to survive and to protect themselves and those they care for.
To me, the natural world is an intricate and extraordinary balance, and one that we humans should interfere with as little as possible. Being allowed to witness even small fragments of animals' lives is a privilege every single time.
And perhaps the moments that stay with me the longest are not the spectacular ones. They are the moments when animals are simply being. Resting, exploring, playing, existing for a brief moment free from struggle and fear. In those moments, I find that I, too, am simply being. And for a little while, the worries and noise of the human world fade away.
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