Located on Wangfujing, one of the busiest commercial streets in China, the Sun Dong An Market was crowded with a flood of shoppers. In an unusually quiet corner of the market, Heather Angel, an eminent nature photographer from Britain, was holding an exhibition of her work named Natural Visions. In silence, visitors appreciated her photos of rare and endangered animals.
A world famous nature photographer, Heather Angel acted as the president of the Royal Photographic Society in the 1980s. She is now a professor at the School of Life and Environmental Sciences of the University of Nottingham, and is known as the first-ever, British, wildlife photographer to be appointed a professor at the university. In addition, she has obtained a BSc in Zoology and an MSc in Marine Biology, and has published 47 monographs on photography and the history of nature. Many of her photographic works have been award winners, and the photos displayed at the Natural Visions exhibition, including 50 wildlife photographic masterpieces, make up her latest works.
Heather Angel has brought Chinese lovers of photography and nature and the exquisite photos of rare animals she has taken around the world together. In turn, the Chinese have repaid her with their warm welcome and great enthusiasm. At the opening ceremony of the exhibition, she explained her photos to the visitors and media. During the following few days, she was invited to give lectures at Tsinghua University and the Beijing Normal University, where she expressed her love and passion for nature. While many were deeply impressed by her stories, they were even more impressed by her marvelous photographic works.
What has driven her to travel the deserted wilderness all year round and take so many remarkable pictures? "Actually, the reason is quite simple," Heather Angel said when interviewed by China Pictorial staff reporters. "It is the beauty of nature. The pictures I chose to display at the exhibition visualize the passion in my heart. It is this passion that encourages me to record our beautiful planet, which is inhabited by a great abundance of species."
Heather Angel loves traveling, especially off the beaten track. In her opinion, only those places that have not been disturbed by humans retain the original look of nature. She has traveled to almost every corner of the world, including the vast wetlands of Botswana and the magnificent Rocky Mountains in the United States. In order to photograph rare plant species, she has ridden a horse and trudged the rugged mountain paths of Kashmir. To witness icicles surrounding a waterfall, she has traveled far into Iceland during winter, regardless of the cold weather. The primitive beauty of these places has made her forget the dangers she might face. "In these places, I have experienced an amazing and colorful life in the field," she said.
Thanks to her wonderful photos, we viewers see true, harmonious nature.
(China Pictorial June 10, 2003)
