Creating work with a purpose is the primary motivator for wildlife and conservation photographer Jasper Doest. He spends long periods of time getting to know the expressions of the creatures that fascinate him and the resulting imagery comes from a deeply learned understanding of their unique customs and manners.
Did you train as a photographer? If not, how did you get into photography?
I don’t have an official photography education but became a photographer after getting an ecology degree. However, I’ve been walking around with cameras ever since I was a child. When I was around five years old, my mother gave me her Kodak Instamatic camera and I remember also playing with my father’s SLR camera. I loved the physical aspect of photography; the feeling of winding the film, the sound of the click. I still do, which is why I love my Leica M rangefinder…that still feels very similar to the film camera’s I grew up with.
