James Kydd Photography

29/10/2018

Sometimes I wake up to news so good that I genuinely wonder if I’m dreaming. Four days ago the EU made the long overdue move to ban single-use plastic. It’s a vote so grand it’s enough to give the hardiest skeptics hope for the survival of our wild planet.
And then there are days the news is so dark that I could wish I hadn’t woken up at all. This morning China lifted its 25-year-old ban on rhino horn and tiger bone.
What kind of world are we going to leave for our grandchildren?
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27/10/2018

Macaroni penguin, Cooper Bay, South Georgia.
Please sign and share the petition to secure the largest protected area on Earth (link in bio).
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24/10/2018

It has been a month and a half since the young swift broke through her shell and clung to the sheer cliff face behind the falls. All she has known of this world is the mossy rock in front of her, the thunderous curtain behind, and the daily changing of the dappled light. Every day her parents have vanished and then re-appeared from a world beyond the water, returning with mouths full of insects. Except today. Today the parents have returned without their bounty, and instead they call encouragingly to their hungry youngster: it is time.
The swiftlet opens her hitherto untested wings: curiosity overcoming the mountain of caution, instinct overriding the dragon of fear, and - she - lets - go. Gravity sucks her tiny body like a missile exploding through the roaring water and then there is a moment no human could ever truly comprehend: she has her first real experience of sky, sun, rainbow, the gargantuan falls and flight all in the same second.
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20/06/2018

The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope.
- Wendell Berry.
It’s hard to believe we were at the source of the Kembo over a month ago. Follow the team as they near the confluence of the Cuando and continue their epic journey towards the Linyanti and the Okavango.

19/06/2018

Perhaps there will come a time where we preserve great tracts of land not because of their economical, social or even scientific significance, but simply because they are wild, and that is something we value beyond measure.

17/06/2018

Our first contact with people on this expedition were with Danny, Donny and Mattheus, three young Tshokwe fishermen with stick rods, a hand axe and their tilapia catch dangling from their wrists. They giggled and followed us for a couple of hours, bemused by the strangers in their forest that mulled over the animal tracks and testing the water in their lake. A young buzzard took off from the reeds ahead of us with an egret in its talons, only to drop it mid-air. The boys excitedly crossed through the shallows to claim their unexpected prize.

More expedition stories on

15/06/2018

Imagine a world where all of our rivers were as clean as this Kembo River that is looking out over. Where we could cup our hands into any flowing fresh water and drink deeply from its life force. Rivers free of plastic, pesticides, and pollutants... and full of life... the way they should be. This should not be hard to imagine, and is not an impossibility; but it does require action from every one of us. As consumers we can say no to pesticides and herbicides by purchasing organic foods. We can say no to plastic on a daily basis: no to water bottles, no to the lids on our takeaway coffees, no to those senseless shopping bags. Just because something is recyclable doesn’t mean it’s not bad for the planet. We can take ownership of our waste creation and disposal. The time has come to stop pointing fingers and waiting for solutions which are already here. Let’s invite nature back into our cities.
Follow as the Kembo team get closer to the confluence with the Cuando River.

12/06/2018

As we round another corner of this serpentine water I shout back to sitting a few metres behind me that a tree blocks our right channel but that we have a small gap on the left. He replies “Copy!” and lines up the mokoro as precisely as he can as we prepare for the next turn in the river. What appears rushing towards us makes our hearts sink even though it is the tenth time this day and comes as no surprise. “Full blockage! Two trees from either bank - let’s try left of the water-berry!” Chris swears and apologizes for the beating we are both about to take.
He angles us to try and pe*****te through the first wall of branches with enough momentum to avoid a capsize. I pull what I can over the corners of the solar panel while Chris fights to keep us upright, the branches scratching and piercing as they rake over us and eventually bring us to a grinding halt. “I’m still on the paddle! We need another metre!” he shouts over the fast flowing water as I frantically try to fold back enough of the smaller branches to wield the machete. “I need another 30 seconds!” I respond as a wasp stings my wrist in protest.
We manage to pull the nose in another metre and stabilize ourselves enough to start forging a proper tunnel. It will be an hour before we are through and about five minutes until the next blockage. It has been like this for over a week.
It is beautiful under the canopy: some of the boughs are heavy with mosses and lichens and felling them causes as much pain to our hearts as it does to our arms. We cut as delicately and apologetically as we can, only enough to squeeze the mokoros through safely, and leave with the promise that we will give our all to protect this water and all of its inhabitants. Perhaps one day the elephants that once kept these channels open will return.
footage by

12/06/2018

Our distant ancestors might have begun harnessing the energy of fire around half a million years ago, one of our greatest natural technological advances. Not only did the fire provide us with warmth and protection, it allowed us to cook and preserve our food, resulting in a massive boost in our calorie intake. The flames helped to forge our weapons and aid hunting strategies, and together with the warmth allowed for the large scale geographic dispersal of humans into colder environments. Somehow, preparing dinner on the flames of a wilderness campfire seems to connect us to this ancient partnership and a time when we lived more harmoniously with the natural world.

For more stories from the Kembo and Cuando Rivers follow

09/06/2018

The motive of science was the extension of man, on all sides, into nature, until his hands should touch the stars, his eyes see through the earth, his ears understand the language of beast and bird, and the sense of the wind; and, through his sympathy, heaven and earth should talk with him.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

28/05/2018

This was our campsite last night, lit by a nearly full moon. The red boxes on the right keep our food supplies protected from the water. On the left are the production tents: where the science and the digital storytelling happen. In the middle is Carmen, who along with Kyle prepares us a delicious dinner every night. The white bucket on the right contains the river water we drink. The black containers in the foreground house our precious pots and kettle that somehow survive numerous expeditions. Surrounding the fire just out of frame is a small forest bordering the Kembo River, and the scattering of the tents that we call home each night in this wild land.

For more on the expedition follow

27/05/2018

The trees of the Kembo River block our path at every turn. The last five days we have progressed five kilometres as the crow flies. So much rests on the shoulders of expedition leader . As the days pass and the confluence with the Cuando seems somehow further away, the stresses will mount. He is inevitably responsible for everything from rationing supplies to team morale (which by the way, is high). Most importantly, right now, he is the path finder, the navigator in the lead mokoro. The first to face the sudden turns and hidden surprises in the current, the first to be sucked towards the waiting arms of the trees, and the first to have to forge a tunnel through this seemingly endless water forest.
For more on the expedition follow
Photo and text by

24/05/2018

From the team. Another day has passed and still this river forest will not release us from its clutches. From where we sit at the campfire tonight we can hear the tiny waterfall that we camped next to last night. While the team are making 20km a day as the crow flies towards our meeting point at the confluence, this is the third day in a row that we have made only about 1km of straight line progress. The current is strong and the branches of the waterberry trees constantly reach out hungrily towards our mokoros, ready to swallow the slightest error in judgement. After another frustrating and stressful three hours on the water expedition leader anchored his mokoro to the bank and walked ahead to see what waited for us. On return, though his body language already spoke volumes, he used a word I had not heard him use before. “Impossible....”

The moment has come that we have been dreading since that brutal first week of the 2015 Cuito expedition. Tomorrow we will don the harnesses and attempt to haul our mokoros over land.
For more in the expedition follow

16/05/2018

We spent the previous three days exploring 47km of the Kembo River’s source on foot. Our only contact with people were three young Tshokwe fishermen with stick rods, a hand axe and their tilapia catch dangling from their wrists.
They walked alongside us for hours, giggling with delight, not another human in sight, and no adult supervision. Outsiders from the western world are often quick to pity many of the people in remote parts of Africa. In my experience I have encountered way more happy people in these places than I do in the cities. Here in the forest there is no phone addiction; and cancer, divorce and plastic are rare. Medicine is provided by the plants, the water is pure and free of chemicals, and education is practical.
And while life in this place is certainly full of its own real hardships, I found myself envious of a childhood spent so wild and free, living off the land and schooled by Mother Nature.
For more posts on our expedition through Angola please follow

11/05/2018

There are some places that we revisit so infrequently that they make us take measure of the time in between. So much has happened since the team first apprehensively passed this church three years ago, a fledgling conservation organization in a very wild land hoping to gain an understanding of and protection for the Okavango’s source. Since then 4,000 kms of rivers have been navigated and surveyed and a proposed protected area spanning over 50,000 sq kms - the catchment of four major rivers - is closer to becoming a reality. These rivers feed the systems of the Okavango, the Linyanti, the Zambezi and more.... some of the richest wildlife regions on our planet.

10/05/2018

Our last stretch of the journey to join the team was through hours and hours of this primary Miombo woodland. The forest floor was a carpet of multi-colored mosses, lichens dripped from the boughs and the trees seemed to be glowing from the inside. Most of the fallen giants had toppled from old age. Somewhere deep inside here there may even be elephants.

02/05/2018

The Harmatan is a wind driven by the pressure gradient between the Sahara and the Gulf of Guinea, and occasionally dips south of the Sahel into Zakouma. It brings with it clouds of fine dust that can block out the sun and leave international flights grounded for days. This dust is the powdery remnants of the now dried up Lake MegaChad, an ancient lake that used to span across a third of Chad. 180 million tons of this phosphorus rich dust is carried up into the atmosphere, carried across the Altlantic and almost 30 million tons land in the Amazon as crucial fertilizer that is otherwise not readily accessible in the tropics, a key factor in determining this rainforest’s biological richness. These massive plumes on their 3000 mile journey are visible from space. On the ground in Zakouma, the dust storms are wildly atmospheric and ethereal.
If you want to learn more about Zakouma, and at the same time learn some delicious recipes, give a follow as they prepare for their book launch.

01/05/2018

Of all the non-human abilities our fellow creatures posses surely the most revered and enviable is the ability to fly. I cannot fathom how anyone would want to keep a bird in a cage.... to me it is a senseless cruelty beyond measure.
Northern carmine bee-eater, photographed in the Salamat River, Zakouma, Chad.

29/04/2018

In the pursuit of flies a common agama took a leap of faith and landed on the forehead of this bull elephant. Whether this was the first time this agama had tried this or not there was no way to tell, but it made me think of the bravery of trust. Trust in both ourselves and others. I thought of the bat that must have taken that maiden, self-propelled flight 60 million years ago. I thought of the first jackal that might have chosen to join our ancestors near the fireside to win a scrap of meat. And then I considered the great elephant standing in front of us. In the 1970s there were 22000 elephants in the greater Zakouma ecosystem. Decades of ruthless slaughter by Janjaweed mercenaries had reduced his kin to a single herd of around 400 by 2010. If this bull was over 40 years old he had lived through and witnessed most of this unimaginable horror. And now, a few years after had stepped in and somehow brought poaching to a halt, this wild elephant stood a few meters away from us, trusting us enough to drink from a hose pipe. I believe its true that an elephant never forgets.... we have much to learn from the wild ones about forgiveness.

22/04/2018

Tonight is the premiere of Into the Okavango, the film documenting the 2015 journey down the length of Cuito River to the end of the Okavango Delta. A four month, 2400 km exploration of one of Africa’s most biologically important water systems. I hope this beautifully documented story is able to fulfill its ultimate goal: activation of global protection for Angola’s rivers and the Okavango Delta they feed into. May the awakening of our species to the fundamental importance of wilderness continue. Good luck to and those at The Tribeca Film Festival tonight, wish I could have been in the audience.

01/11/2017

All images property of James Kydd

03/02/2011

Action Shortlist - World Photography Organisation

http://www.worldphoto.org/images/image-gallery/4941/
One of my images has been selected from 52000 entries into the final 10 for the Sony World Photography Awards. Check out some amazing photographs, and keep your fingers crossed.

A Global platform for Professional, Amateur and Student Photographers to communicate and showcase Photojournalism, Fine Art and Commercial Photography. WPO organise the Sony World Photography Awards.