Chris Fallows -Art with Meaning- Newsletter End 2025.
If I had to choose one word to reflect on 2025, I would say ‘gratefulness’.
Since my mid-year news, a lot has happened with trips to Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Gabon. Time in the field to photograph and incredible wildlife experiences always go hand in hand, and as always, I feel this is my greatest privilege.
I continue to welcome and embrace opportunities to reach and speak to different audiences across different platforms. In the last quarter of 2025, I have been given a number of fantastic opportunities.
But first, I would like to introduce my four new works launched in 2025.
New Limited Edition works to the portfolio
The first is a sparkling whale tail contrasting with an ebony background.
It is the strong artistry to this work that drew me to selecting it. Captured from a very low angle in a rough sea, the ark of the whale’s tail is accentuated by a shallow depth of field and the dancing zirconias of light that I chose to shoot into.
It is a work that took many months on the ocean to accomplish whilst waiting for the right moods and opportunity to combine. I think this work would look truly fantastic in any modern home that pays homage to the ocean as a beautifully framed lightbox with the backlighting really emphasizing the mood and contrast of the beautiful scene.
The second work, Call to Earth, also hero’s a whale, but this time a spectacular breaching humpback leaping in front of a dramatic sky and background.
Photographed with a wide-angle lens, it is a work that in essence showcases the majesty of one of the oceans most famous creatures performing on a beautiful stage.
It has been a very lengthy process to capture a wide-angle image of a whale breaching with shafts of light dancing all around it, so my hope is that this work will be appreciated as a work of passion.
The photograph was captured whilst working with the news network, CNN, on a half an hour special about my photography for their ‘Call to Earth’ programming sponsored by Rolex, and therefore the title seemed appropriate.
In my work I am constantly trying to marry up art with our planet’s natural icons.
In Africa there is probably no greater ambassador for the continent’s botanical giants than the much lauded baobab tree.
This huge tree is said to live over 2000 years, it has seen dynasties rise and fall, survived flood and famine, and given both shade and sustenance to the who’s who of the natural world. It is thus perhaps fitting that such a fabled tree should be studded by perhaps the planet’s most beautiful cat, the leopard.
Replete with dappled golden pelage, and draped luxuriantly across the great tree’s boughs, this most magnificent of cats adds its flair to a truly unique fusion of African Fauna and Flora icons. The Baobab and Leopard is a photograph I had envisioned for decades but could never plan for. It is one of those moments in my lifetime where opportunity, positioning of subjects, and luck all combined into a work I doubt I will ever be able to replicate.
This is a work that sums up a tiny footnote that sat under my computer in Cape Town for two years. The note simply said – “take a reverse angle of the elephants crossing the lake.” It is a footnote I wish I had listened to earlier, but thankful I eventually did.
Nick Brandt, David Yarrow and many other great fine art photographers have done it so well, capturing a fine art photograph of a herd of elephants coming towards the lens whilst crossing the dry lakes of Kenya’s Amboseli National Park.
It is a timeless, beautiful and unforgettable scene.
Today, however, I feel that perhaps it is a scene that by lens is to oft traded upon and begs a refreshing take on it.
That said, it is not easy to come up with new ways of telling a beautiful story and as such when I eventually did decide to reverse the angle of my camera upon this scene, I was hesitant as to what the outcome may be.
Perhaps it is because it is such a novel perspective, and in essence asks of the viewer to do a 180 on what they are used to seeing, that I find strong elements of engagement in it?
Or maybe it is the fact that, once you see the undersides and soles of the storied feet moving away from you, that it asks of you to follow the elephants into the frame creating engaging scrutiny from a completely different perspective?
Whatever it is, I hope that any prospective holder of this work will enjoy the visual engagement that this new perspective offers, and to follow this herd onto the ancient African lake as if you were one of them.
This year I was invited to be a guest editor on the CNN series, Call to Earth. This series reports on the environmental challenges to our planet as well as solutions and positive stories to promote awareness and action around key issues.
This episode titled, Beyond the Lens, focused on my main objective of using my narrative and imagery to inspire millions of people as to the magnificence of our planets most iconic species.
In Beyond the Lens, we highlighted the incredibly positive story of the rise of the humpback whale populations along our South African coastline; we celebrated the spectacular mega pods of common dolphin in False Bay, Cape Town and we travelled to Southern Tanzania to highlight the incredible conservation work being undertaken and achieved by the extraordinary NGO, Six Rivers Africa (SRA), in Nyerere National Park. Plus, a number of other highlights!
The links to the full episode and shorter segments are below.
Dubai, UAE
I was hardly home and then packing my bags again, this time for a very different world to my normal one. Swopping slip slops and shorts for dinner jackets and polished shoes, I embarked on a 10-day whirlwind trip to Dubai for various charity events, conservation related meetings and an awards ceremony.
Conservation
Teaming up with my good friends and loyal supporters of our conservation endeavours, Michael Markland from Kashaf Global and Neel Shukla from Four Season’s Ramesh Gallery, we raised just under USD$20,000 from the auction of one of my elephant works, Advance, at the Art be A Part gala auction held at the Museum of the Future.
In addition to the auction, I was honoured to be on stage with fellow artists eL Seed & Parson James for a panel discussion with Rosemin Madhavji at the Bvalgari Resort Dubai.
I was also thrilled to donate another elephant work in support of the vital work being achieved by the NGO, Wild Africa’s for their annual fundraising gala in Los Angeles, fetching just under USD$8,000.00.
Global Ventures AGM
I was delighted to participate in a fireside chat with Noor Sweid, Managing Partner at Global Ventures as part of their 2025 AGM. This event brought together some of the sharpest minds and most progressive companies in the MENA region. It was a privilege to be able to share my passion for the natural world as well as the importance of finding ways to co-exist and live and work as sustainably as possible.
Emirates ICE
Following on from this, I was interviewed by Patrick Branelly for Emirates Airlines inflight podcast, ICE, which will be airing on all Emirates flights in January 2026. It was another great opportunity to speak about my conservation message and photography.
Award
I was honoured to receive the 2nd Place Winner in the Power Black and White category at the prestigious Hipa Photographic Awards for Defiance. The competition received over 80,000 entries so I am thrilled that Defiance was recognised.
It is truly humbling for me to be surrounded by so many smart, articulate and supportive people recognizing not only my work, but more importantly what it represents and the projects it looks to support.
A huge thank you to you all for a UAE visit that was both inspiring and successful.
Year end
With little over a month to go until the new year, there is no time to let grass grow under our feet and we are now flat out into working off the west coast of South Africa with the incredible humpback whale super groups. I just wish the never-ending Southeaster gales would relent!
In this endeavour our aim is to not only create unique artistic imagery of the whales, but also to contribute towards non-invasive science by contributing our images to population dynamic studies such as Happywhale, and work being done by South Africa’s leading cetacean scientists like Mdu Seakamelo.
Thank you
I am humbled that interest in my work continues to grow, and ever increasingly it is attracting significant exposure, which is a huge objective of mine to inspire global audiences as to the incredible biodiversity we share our planet with.
As always, please stay in touch and thank you to all who so kindly supported our work in 2025 by way of art purchases, time, support and advice.
We look forward to an amazing 2026 with even greater representation, allowing us to achieve ever greater strides in our conservation efforts.
Best wishes, Chris & Monique