Echo Fine Arts | Joachim Schmeisser

With iconic portraits of Africa‘s big game, Joachim Schmeisser became world-famous, and his distinctive visual language, which brought him great international acclaim, earned him the prestigious Hasselblad Master Award in 2012.

The timelessness and intimacy of his photographs are unique and characterized by a delicate sense of greatness that transcends ordinary beauty and makes the concept of the sublime palpable. He gives us the feeling of witnessing something infinite or unattainable, and his phenomenal lighting moods and incomparable compositions open up emotional levels that are difficult to put into words. Joachim Schmeisser‘s unique perspective on the world sets him apart and goes far beyond the usual image of nature photography, documentary, or action photography. He reveals to us a magical vision of our world with equal individuals in which we ultimately recognize ourselves.
Joachim Schmeisser is among the most important artists in this genre worldwide. His books on Africa‘s endangered wildlife, „Elephants in Heaven“ and „Last of their Kind,“ have become bestsellers.

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Born in Germany in 1958, Joachim Schmeisser is best known for his major photographic series he has done in East Africa – his iconic portraiture of Elephants – especially the Orphan Elephants at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya.

He started this project in 2009 – during a stopover on a trip to the mountain gorillas in Rwanda and the Hadzabe in Tanzania. Everything changed once he found himself surrounded by these baby elephants and his short travel break turned into a wonderful friendship and terrific project. It is still ongoing even today and has become a matter close to his heart.

In 2012, Joachim Schmeisser won the prestigious Hasselblad Award for this work. In 2017 his book "Elephants in Heaven" was launched by the German Publisher teNeues and sold out within 4 months. His following book, “Hall of Giants” shows a selection of large-format portraits of some of the oldest and largest bull elephants in Africa as well as young elephants that have the potential to grow into Big Tuskers. All of the photographs were taken with medium-format cameras without the use of remote control devices or long lenses. These close-ups are extremely rare in the genre of wildlife photography. Of the Big Tuskers in Amboseli, they are the only ones that exist in this form.

His latest release, which is entitled "The Last Of Their Kind", was published in Spring 2021 by teNeues.

Joachim Schmeisser's intention is to show the beauty and uniqueness of our planet and to increase sensitivity for a topic that concerns us all.

"I see the photos of the elephants as portraits of individuals who are our equals – far removed from spectacular wildlife photography. What interests me is what lies beneath the surface, out of sight, the quite yet intense encounters. I‘d like you to see the images as a window into a fascinating world, where everything is connected to everything else. Protecting this nature is our most important mission."