Griet Van Malderen
"Origines"

Exhibition: 24 July – 28 August 2022

A field principally dominated by men, it is rare to find a female photographer equipped with her cameras and lenses in the African bush! Consequently, Griet Van Malderen is the exception to the rule. This Belgian from Flanders did not follow any theoretical courses in photography. Her talent was born the day she first set foot in South Africa those many years ago.

Since then, her work has exponentially improved as she consistently strives to surpass herself whilst at the same time respecting her subjects. Alongside her work, she has been a strong advocate for wildlife conservation and the environment at a moment when the devastating consequences of climate change are most apparent.

Griet has done what no one else usually dares to do: trade a simple life for a faster and more exciting life in the bush! When Griet Van Malderen visited the Kruger National Park in southern Africa for the first time with her family in 2008, she was immediately amazed and captivated by the African wildlife. Her love for wildlife photography was definitively declared in 2014 when she met families of mountain gorillas in the impenetrable Bwindi forest in Uganda. She visits them from one spring to the next. But in 2020, Griet was visually confronted with the devastating presence of man on the forest, the habitat of these primates.

On her way home, in the midst of confinement, she learned of the death of Rafiki, the silverback whose last name meant 'friend'. Killed by suspected poachers. Griet was the last visitor to see this gentle giant. It came as a shock. Another species for which Griet has protective feelings is the elephant, especially the big tuskers of Kenya. Tim was one of them, the most iconic, and he died two years ago of natural causes at the age of 50. A miracle! Considering how much Tim had to struggle to survive. His mother Trista was killed by poachers in 1978 when he was eight years old. Then he lost his sister Tallulah in 2003.

Griet donates a portion of the profits from the sale of her photographs to active and reliable animal welfare organisations with whom she works on the ground in Kenya, such as the Mara Elephant Project and the Tsavo Trust.