Photo Book Reviews

Photo Book Review: Wild Life by Brad Wilson

Cynthia Boylan | Nov 3, 2014

Moving beyond the the traditional, Brad Wilson has put a fresh and unique twist on wildlife photography in his new book titled Wild Life. Wilson wanted to capture the beauty of wild animals outside of their usual natural environment—or even the safe confines of a zoo enclosure. He wanted us to see the animals (including lions, owls, elephants, chimps, bulls, jaguars, cheetahs, alligators and more) in a setting that he had total control over, his own studio.

Bringing them into his studio and photographing each one against a solid black background produced stunning results. Wilson managed to eliminate any distractions that would have normally been created by a natural background in order to allow us to focus our attention entirely on the animals. For the first time we can fully appreciate each animal’s expression, posture, size, textures and colors like never before.

This was no easy task to accomplish because he needed to find animals that responded well to their trainers—for his own safety as much as for the need for them to stay still long enough for him to take a photo. His experiment was well worth all of the time and effort put into it. Wild Life contains a wonderful collection of images that are certain to take your breath away.