‘Why We Photograph Animals’: New book from Associate Professor Dr Huw Lewis-Jones

Dr Huw Lewis-Jones' new book, Why We Photograph Animals, is a visual overview of the history and future of animal photography. Published by Thames & Hudson, the book illustrates how we photograph animals, and why photographing them matters to us and the planet.  

Why We Photograph Animals features the work of over 100 photographers, supported by thematic essays, interviews and contributions that explore the influences, methods and motivations behind their work. The result is a book that will engage those with an interest in wildlife photography and the natural world, but also those with a concern for the future of the planet.  

Of Why We Photograph Animals, The Sunday Times wrote: “[The book] brings together the world’s wildest animal photography … gets up close and personal with big beasts, bramblings and a ‘water bear’ less than half a centimetre long.” 

Dr Huw Lewis-Jones is an Associate Professor within Falmouth University’s Institute of Photography, an historian of exploration, photography and the environment, and an award-winning author and photo editor. His books include Archipelago: An Atlas of Imagined Islands, Explorers' Sketchbooks, Imagining the Arctic, Face to Face: Ocean Portraits, The Writer's Map, The Conquest of Everest and The Sea Journal.  

In recent years, Huw has also found great success in the children’s book market, most notably with his Bad Apple and Blue Badger series – following the escapades of a very bad apple and one badger’s hunt for happiness.  

In Why We Photograph Animals, Huw’s expert authorship and curation celebrates extraordinary images by brilliant photographers, but also allows us to understand why people have photographed animals at different points in history and what it means in the present. It’s an exploration of the animal in photography, speaking to our ongoing desire to look at animals; to understand, misunderstand and appreciate them; to use and abuse them; to neglect or come to value and protect them.  

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About Why We Photograph Animals  

@huwlewisjones