R o b e r t H o re n s t e i n :
ANIMALIA
often with macro lenses, so I
could get close, and worked
with grainy, black-and-white
films, printed in sepia, hoping to give them an old school,
timeless feel. I worked in zoos
and aquariums, not in the wild
or underwater. This meant I
could almost always find my
subjects; they couldn’t get too
far away. The other advantage
was that I could isolate and
freeze them in a constrained
space, almost as though they
were models, posing for me
in a studio. Photographing
animals is very different from
photographing people. You
can’t tell an elephant where
to stand, and you can´t ask a
skate to smile or a lizard to say
“cheese.” Instead, you must
be very patient and wait, hoping your subject will do what
you want it to do, or maybe
something else unexpected that
might make a good picture.
When animals do cooperate,
you have to be ready, because
most won’t stay in one position
long. You have only a few seconds, and often less, to get your
shot. As I watch and wait, I listen to other zoo visitors discuss
the animals in human terms.
“I believe animals are their
very own creatures,
with unique, often surprising
and altogether amazing
characteristics.”
—H. H orenstein