I started photography when I started travelling and I fell in love with wildlife photography. It is to me the most difficult but rewarding type of photography. I love looking for angles and backgrounds to give an unusual view of the animal. Then the animal has to offer the perfect look or the perfect posture.
I discovered this pack of Arctic wolves in a wildlife park in my home region in the north of France. The Sainte Croix park is a giant park protecting a lot of European and endangered spieces. Some of the animals are even totally free. They are adapted to cold temperatures as low as -57 degrees celcius and their fur can weight up to 1 kilogram in winter. Their nickname is “the elk’s doctor”because they hunt mostly the weaker elks.
They can stay years at the same place and they don’t fear humans. A pack of wolves is very dynamic and social so the photographic possibilities are numerous. I love how photogenic and charismatic they are. When I realized how lucky I am to approach such inspiring creatures I had the idea of an artistic series showing their grace and how mystic they look. Sometimes I can almost see their soul making a contact with me.
About Alexandre De Melas
My name is Alexandre De Melas, I come from Metz in France, I am 27 and I am a photographer and filmmaker. Since my young days I have always been passionate by cinema. After graduating from high school as a cinema student I went to several film schools like the IAD in Belgium and the Ecole de la Cité in Paris created by Luc Besson.
I lived in Paris for 4 years and I worked on movies such as « Le secret de la chambre noire » by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, « Valerian and the city of a thousand planets » and « Lucy » by Luc Besson. I directed few short films of my own and I learned photography.
I am a self-taught photographer which is to me like making a movie it is all about telling stories with my heart. I really started photography on a road trip in Iceland. I discovered nature and wildlife photography. Wildlife photography is to me the most difficult and rewarding type of photography because the animals are so unpredictable. I feel so lucky when I finally have the shot. I always feel like nature is giving me a present when a beautiful scene occurs.
I have feature film studies but nature photography opened my eyes on documentary genre.In October 2017 I went to New Zealand for almost a year of road trip and it was a great opportunity for me to shoot a nature and wildlife series about the country and its endemic species.Now I am working as a filmmaker and photographer back in France but with serious tendencies to travel wherever I can with my camera.
