Andrey Gudkov is a Russian wildlife photographer who often goes on expeditions to the most remote and dangerous regions of Indonesia and Africa, such as Borneo, Zambia and the island of Rinka. Everything is done in order to capture wild animals living in their natural habitat — something that has already become exotic for us today.
In his works, Andrey Gudkov tries to convey the beauty and importance of these animals, since many of them are endangered.
Andrey says that photographing wildlife is extremely difficult, because a photographer needs to have special training and a lot of patience, not to mention financial investments in photographic equipment and twelve to fifteen working hours in not very ideal working conditions.
In addition, a wildlife photographer needs to have a very deep knowledge of his subject; otherwise, all efforts to organize an expedition will be wasted. You should step on this path, armed with great patience and caution, because it is almost impossible to photograph an animal professionally without thinking about it seriously.
Sometimes you have to spend six or seven months preparing for an expedition, where you will have only three or four shooting days. A working day can last from twelve to fifteen hours. Be prepared for poor living conditions and camping-style life: dirt, dust, rain, scorching sun and injuries will become your inevitable companions. And if you shoot for a long time in the tropics, then a whole bunch of tropical diseases is almost guaranteed to you.
Gudkov believes that there are no beautiful or ugly animals, since the success of photography depends on the photographer's attempt to find something human in each animal.
It is important to understand that these animals are threatened with extinction due to the current living conditions. Andrey believes that the mission of every wildlife photographer is to show people that these animals are disappearing.