Tim Flach

Tim Flach is one of the world’s foremost animal photographers, his technical expertise and innovative intellectual approach helping define the way images are made in this arena. Born in 1958 in London, he published his first monograph, Equus, in 2008, an acclaimed study of horses and our relationship with them. This book was followed by six more monographs to date – Dogs (2010), More Than Human (2012), Evolution (2013), Endangered (2017), Who Am I? (2019), and Birds (2021). His next project will be a study of cats.
As the world faces its sixth mass extinction, also known as the Anthropocene extinction, Flach’s images communicate an urgent ecological message into the cultural sphere. Eschewing romantic fantasies of traditional wildlife photography, they emphasise connection with other creatures in a bid to engage viewers and move them into making the necessary changes to government policy and their own behaviour. Flach’s photographs have been exhibited at prominent galleries and museums worldwide. Endangered, a powerful record of species on the edge of extinction, was shown at the Museum national d'histoire naturelle, Paris in 2021 and the State Gallery of Art, Hyderabad in 2019, for example; Flach has also had solo shows in venues such as the Beijing Museum of Natural History and Lumiere Brothers Gallery in Moscow. His images are held in permanent collections such as theV&A Museum and Swedish Museum of Natural History.
Since the beginning of his career, Flach has contributed to academic research into how photographs of animals impact on their audiences. In 2020 he published a study with two social scientists, Professors Cameron Thomas Whitley and Linda Kalof, which used empirical evidence to show that anthropomorphic animal portraits promote empathy. Flach has been invited to speak at conferences such as The Zoological Society of London and St Petersburg International Economic Forum, and has lectured at universities worldwide. He has also contributed to books and group projects, including Surveying the Anthropocene: Environment and Photography Now, which was published by Edinburgh University Press in 2021, and A Cabinet of Curiosities for the Anthropocene, published by Chicago Press in 2018. Tim Flach graduated from St Martins College in 1982; in 2013, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the Arts, London.