The Sad Reason A Photographer Returned To Africa

A wildlife photographer spent five years returning to Africa to photograph a beloved rare elephant, eventually creating a heartfelt tribute after his death.Tania Cholwich first travelled to Amboseli, Kenya, hoping to photograph Craig, one of the area’s last great Super Tuskers, known for his enormous tusks and extraordinary size.But what began as a photographic project became a deeply personal connection.Tania returned to Amboseli repeatedly over five years, sometimes travelling to Kenya twice a year specifically to spend time with Craig.”I remember the first time I raised my camera to photograph him. My hands began to shake,” Tania said. “For a moment, I almost forgot that I was holding a camera at all.””Craig was never just the elephant I photographed. He became the elephant I loved.”Some of Tania’s favourite photographs show Craig beneath Mount Kilimanjaro, but she says the experience was about much more than capturing his remarkable appearance.”I would spend time with him, watch him, photograph him and simply be in his presence,” she said.When Craig died, Tania was devastated.”When I heard that Craig had passed away, I simply couldn’t comprehend it,” she said.The loss inspired Tania to create her book Through My Lens: A Love Letter to Craig, a photographic tribute to the elephant she had come to regard as an old friend.Tania says she had always known about the threats facing wildlife, including poaching and drought, but found it difficult to accept that an animal as imposing as Craig could also be vulnerable.”I suppose I had forgotten that even a giant like Craig was vulnerable,” she said.”I wrote this book because I lost him. But I am sharing his story because the world must remember him.”Through her photographs, Tania hopes Craig will be remembered not simply for his enormous tusks, but for the life he lived across the Amboseli plains beneath Mount Kilimanjaro.”I wanted the world to remember Craig – not simply as an elephant with enormous tusks, but as one of Amboseli’s last great Super Tuskers, a magnificent old giant who lived freely across the plains beneath Mount Kilimanjaro.”