About Gabriel Haering – Black & White African Photography

Black and white photography was my first photographic language.

I began as a photographer working with black and white film, developing my images myself and building my own darkroom. That early experience shaped the way I still see photographs today: through light, shadow, texture, form and emotion rather than through colour alone.

Working in the darkroom taught me patience and intention. Every image required time, care and decisions. That discipline stayed with me and still influences the way I photograph wildlife and landscapes in Africa: slowly, attentively and with a clear visual purpose.

When photography moved into the digital world, I naturally worked for a long period in colour. Later, however, I rediscovered black and white with renewed enthusiasm, helped by powerful creative tools such as Nik Collection and especially Silver Efex. These tools did not replace the spirit of darkroom photography, but they gave me a new way to interpret the same visual language I had loved from the beginning.

Today, this black and white portfolio brings together that original passion and my long experience in the field across Africa. I am drawn to photographs that go beyond documentation and reveal structure, atmosphere, contrast, behaviour and presence. In monochrome, an elephant’s skin, a buffalo’s stare, the geometry of zebra stripes or the silence of an African landscape can become even more expressive.

Alongside pure black and white, I also enjoy working with a sepia variant. Sepia adds a subtle warmth to images that might otherwise feel too cold or distant in strict monochrome. Used carefully, it can create a more timeless, intimate and emotional mood while preserving the strength and simplicity of black and white.

I am a wildlife photographer driven by patience, observation and deep respect for nature. Photography is not a volume-driven business for me.

Because it is not my only professional activity, I have the freedom to focus on quality rather than quantity, to select projects that truly inspire me, and to work in an ethical and respectful way in the field.

When I photograph in Tanzania, Kenya, Botswana, Namibia or Zimbabwe, I work deliberately. I observe before I shoot. I wait for behaviour, atmosphere and form. I do not photograph everything. I photograph what matters.

A particularly meaningful moment came in 2024, when a photographic exhibition dedicated to elephants was organised with print sales for charity. The exhibition was very well received and its success confirmed for me how powerful monochrome elephant photography can be: emotionally strong, visually timeless and able to connect art with a positive cause.