Adrian Steirn
Adrian Steirn is one of the world’s leading wildlife photographers, celebrated for his unique ability to capture the profound grace and unsettling beauty of real Africa. His work over the last ten years has seen him receive significant acclaim as a fine art wildlife and portrait photographer. Based in Cape Town, Adrian immerses himself in the bush for months at a time and continues an intimate relationship with untamed Africa that dates back some fifteen years.Adrian’s photographs reflect his strong background in portraiture and thorough understanding of the continent’s wild subjects, imbuing each with the restlessness and serenity which pervade so uniquely in the wild African spaces. Unapologetically idyllic, they nonetheless capture an unbowed but precarious wilderness, demanding empathy and admiration for its inhabitants.
This is the African bush in all its guises - magical, savage, tranquil, consuming. It is a stunning insight into a world that once experienced is never forgotten. At once epic and ardent, his work continues to catalog Africa’s disappearing landlords, communicating their majesty and vulnerability with an uncommon sensitivity.
On Adrian’s work:
“Africa with its resplendent landscapes, unique biodiversity and ancient human cultures has always attracted the World’s greatest photographers. All strive to unwrap this most subtle of continent and lay bare through their lens both Africa’s surface details and its viscera. Very few succeed at all. The rarest of these artists’s with cameras somehow contrive to succeed completely. What sets these profound photographers apart from their peers is a curious mix of talents, energy and an ambition to enthrall us with photographs of both the mundane and magnificent! Adrian Steirn is undeniably one of these.”
Mark Read (Owner of Everard Read Gallery, Johannesburg)
“Viewing Adrian Steirn’s images is like looking through a window to the soul of Africa.”
Hans Paffrath (Owner Gallerie Paffrath, Dusseldorf)
“Adrian Steirn’s photographs have an inventiveness and wit. He is able both to perceive unusual perspectives on his subjects and - vital for a portraitist - is able to convince his subject to participate in his exploration. Together with this, he brings a technical mastery that is tested to its limits by his perfectionism.”
William Kentridge (South Africa’s preeminent contemporary artist)
Partners of Adrian Steirn Projects
Nikon Africa
Lexar, part of Lexar´s Elite Program, one of two photographers in Africa to be honoured.
Gitzo
Lowepro
Awards
Nikon Africa Professional Photographer of the Year 2009
Overall winner of the African Photography Awards 2010, including Portrait Photographer and Fashion Image of the Year
WWF SA Photographer-in-Residence 2011 - 2014
