I have produced photography and writing for various conservation NGOs, safari companies and magazines which inspire people to experience – and protect – African wilderness.
I spend much of the year travelling to Africa’s national parks and conservancies, both for safari companies and conservation NGOs. My photography and writing needs to contribute in some way – however small – to the conservation of African wilderness. Otherwise, my work has little value – or meaning – to me.
So far, I have explored and photographed more than 100 protected areas and conservancies in 12 African countries: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania, Republic of Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and São Tomé and Príncipe.
In 2015, I published my first coffee-table book South Africa’s Wildest Places, after three years of exploring more than 50 protected areas in my home country of South Africa, including all 19 national parks.
My journey from 2011 to 2013 was endorsed and supported by South African National Parks. I wrote over a hundred articles for a variety of magazines and newspapers, all of which generated several million rands worth of media exposure for the parks.
In 2018, I was commissioned by Classic Portfolio to photograph and write VAST, a coffee-table book featuring experiences and stories from some of the finest independently-owned safari camps around Africa, many of which help sustain some of the largest national parks and wilderness areas on the continent.
I have completed photographic and/or writing work for the following clients: African Parks Network, Angama Mara, Azura, British Airways Magazine, Bushcamp Company, CapeNature, Classic Portfolio, Chiawa and Old Mondoro, Conservation Lower Zambezi, Getaway Magazine, Grumeti Fund, iSimangaliso Wetland Park, Kwandwe, Legendary Expeditions, Machaba Safaris, Nomad Tanzania, Odzala Discovery Camps, Pride of Table Mountain, Remote Africa, South African National Parks, The Safari Collection, Tanda Tula, Wild Magazine.
While I am available for commissions, I also undertake my own travels into African wilderness for personal photographic and writing projects. Many of the photographs on this website are from my personal adventures into the continent’s wilderness areas. I hope I can keep doing these personal journeys into African wilderness.
Please contact me on my cell number +27-63-710-4873.
To the north of my home in Cape Town lies the massive continent of Africa – all 30 million square kilometres. I find it all endlessly fascinating, and quite intimidating. Yet like a hyena scouting it’s territory, I have an instinctive desire to know all of Africa’s remaining wild places.
But the more I travel around Africa, the more I realise this continent can never be fully known. Despite all the science, the exploration, the “development” and the grabbing hands of unbridled capitalism and corrupt politics, Africa remains largely aloof, mysterious and complex, a continent that seems to elude both the good and bad intentions of those who think they know her.
Still, if you want to know something of her enigmatic nature, I believe you should start by visiting her wild places. All of humanity rose up from her wilderness, her soils, her forests and her savannahs. For most of our human evolution, Africa’s wild animals were our neighbours, our brethren, our competitors and our allies. The landscape and the creatures forged our human hearts, minds and souls. Africa made us. As my friend Craig Foster likes to say, “Africa doesn’t get into your blood – it’s already in your blood!”
A journey to African wilderness isn’t only an external one. It can be a powerful internal journey too. By knowing Africa’s wild places, I believe we can also understand ourselves best – and, importantly, we can also be most ourselves in African wilderness. This is at least true in my case. And I know many other people who feel the same way. Africa is our original home, and when you visit her wild places, you are coming back to where your human consciousness – and your human soulfulness – arose.
But time is running out. Africa was once all “wild”. Back then, before agriculture and industrialisation, the very word “wild” hadn’t yet been needed in human language. Now much of what was once “wild” has been transformed for human use. Africa is changing fast, and losing a lot of it’s original natural habitat and wildlife. And along with this destruction of African wilderness, we humans are losing part of our soul, I believe.
Please support the local communities, organisations and conservationists that safeguard the last wild places. Organisations like African Parks, Frankfurt Zoological Society, Conservation Lower Zambezi, Grumeti Fund and Pride of Table Mountain deserve your support, as they are making a real difference on the ground, right now, where it counts. I have worked with these organisations, and can vouch for their integrity, commitment and undoubted value of their efforts.
Then come to Africa to experience the effect of its wilderness and wildlife for yourself. Your tourism money – spent wisely with ethical safari companies – can support many local people who work in tourism and conservation. Local people must benefit meaningfully from conservation, and without a thriving safari industry, there is little incentive to protect African landscapes and oceans.
If you’re interested in coming to Africa on safari, please contact me and I will happily refer you to ethical safari companies and guides who do much to help conserve this continent and it’s wilderness.
© 2023 Scott Ramsay