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Martyn Colbeck

“I never tire of photographing elephants.  They are endlesssly fascinating and entertaining.  My aim is to capture more than just another image of an elephant  but rather to try and convey something of what makes them so special”.
Martyn Colbeck is an award winning film maker and photographer who has been filming wildlife worldwide for over 20 years. Working mainly in association with the BBC’s world renowned Natural History Unit in the UK, Martyn has filmed sequences for many best known blockbuster series.  Of the five elephant films he has made, three have been in association with Cynthia Moss of the Amboseli Elephant Research Project. Together, over a 15 year period, they have uniquely chronicled the life of a matriarch known as Echo and her family. A documentary about his work filming and photographing elephants all over Africa called “An Eye for an Elephant” is set to be screened on BBC2 on 17th January 2006, and on PBS in the USA.
In his photographs Martyn conveys something of the elephants’ complex social relationships, their tenderness, and their strength. Some of the more impressionistic images explore both still and motion picture techniques creating photographs that are extraordinary and arresting.

Awards
Wildlife Photographer of the Year in 1993
The Gerald Durrell Award for endangered species 1996
Best cinematography - Jackson Hole in the USA for Wild Africa “Mountains”
Best cinematograpy - Wildscreen in the UK for “Elephants of the Sand”
In January 2005 IPG presented “The Elephants of Amboseli” printed by Robin Bell, Colbeck’s printer for many years. The exhibition was simultaneous with the release of his film “Echoes of the Elephants - The Final Chapter?”
Martyn Colbeck will be giving a talk in January to accompany the collection.