I hate zoos, I always did.

I’ve been taking these pictures during my 60 days trip in Africa, in a 4 days safari.

I wish this was the true reality. Sadly, I’ve been taking these photos in a zoo. And I say sadly because I find nothing more sad than wild animals forced to live in a cage. The beautiful snow leopard (not the mac os as many have probably thought…) king of the mountain’s top, kept like a cat in a small cage, boring himself to death. Here is a line from wikipedia:

“Snow leopards live between 3,000 and 5,500 metres (9,800 and 18,000 ft) above sea level in the rocky mountain ranges of Central and South Asia”.

And again:

“Snow leopards show several adaptations for living in a cold mountainous environment”.

It is not difficult to find out that this animal, living in a place that is 15 meters above the sea level and with a mediterranean climate, will kinda suffer. Just a tiny bit… Anyway, I feel that these animals are all conscious of living a shitty life. We have a desperate monkey, so bored to wait the day he will finally die without having been to Las Vegas, to beautiful lifeless flamingos, and finishing with a desperate and amazing gorilla with sad human eyes, who tried to attack me after I’ve been taking him a beautiful portrait. Shyness? I don’t know. Maybe… Or maybe it’s a sign I suck as a photographer… My girlfriend suggested that he saw in me one of his fellow creature. I still don’t understand if it’s a compliment (meaning that he felt that I wanted to be the dominant male and then decided a desperate attack to save his beloved woman from my monkey sex appeal), or if she meant that I look like him. It’s probably this last one… Yeah. But I like to think I scared him and he attacked me because otherwise he would have had his wife stolen…

I’d like to be serious again (for a little while at least) and ask you to never go to a zoo again. Animals are not meant to live in a cage. They suffer as much as we do. These pictures show how much lifeless they are. Think of you being them. What would I do in a cage for the rest of my life?

Just think.

Ben Flynn (photography) meets Leica

Today I’ve been finally shooting with the Leica M8! For those of you that don’t know what it is, the Leica is a german camera brand which is legendary. The quality is in fact outstanding: I understand now why famous photographers like Cartier-Bresson, Sebastian Salgado and the italian Gianni Berengo Gardin love this camera. It has the reputation in my school of being difficult to focus with, but it felt pretty easy and comfortable to me. It just has to be used. Especially if you can use it for free (I had the camera and two lenses, for a total of 15.000 $!!!), which is a great privilege!

I was scouting a new location in the area of Santa Barbara with my friend and classmate Ben Flynn, which is an amazing surf photographer (check his website out by clicking here and you’ll see it by yourself), when i decided to snap a couple of portrait of him. And the results are amazing! I’ll definitely find some more time to shoot with this camera, since I won’t be able to afford one for a long time…