My connection to Africa, and especially to cheetahs, has been with me since I was a child. Even back then, their grace, their vulnerability, and the vastness of their home touched me.

In 2013, I travelled to South Africa alone for the first time to volunteer at a cheetah conservation project. This journey changed my life. Encountering real wilderness, animals at eye level, and people who dedicate their lives to protecting these beings had a deep impact on me. Since then, I have travelled through different parts of the world – but I am always drawn back to Africa.
Southern Africa feels like a second home to me. Deeply familiar, and yet new every time.

What moves me deeply is the ongoing loss of untouched wilderness through human impact. At the same time, what fascinates me most is the opposite: vast open spaces, silence, raw nature, wildness – places where nature still belongs to itself. These are the moments I try to capture with my photography. In a quiet, respectful, and mindful way. Without interference. As if the viewer is not present at all. Nature exists with us and without us. It is perfect in its imperfection. Graceful and powerful. This is the feeling I want to carry into my images.

With my work, I want to do more than simply show photographs. Through my photography, I have already been able to provide financial support for a cheetah conservation project. In the future, I want to deepen this commitment and actively support conservation even more.

To better understand the complexity of nature, I am currently completing the theoretical FGASA Field Guide course. My goal is to gain a deeper understanding of southern Africa’s ecosystems and to let this knowledge flow into my photography – to tell stories more consciously, to move people, and to protect.

Deep Silent Wild stands for this attitude:
for true depth that touches
for silence that brings us back to ourselves
for real wilderness in a world full of people

And Deep Silent Wild stands for me:
Deep, quiet, and wild at heart.

♡ Sandra