HEARTS OF IVORY

More than their brute strength or impressive size, it is the bonds of solidarity between elephants that enable them to dominate the African savannah, as they wander from waterhole to waterhole, infants and adults alike, united as a single living being. Survival is a constant struggle for the animals that inhabit the hostile, implacable wilderness of Botswana. Even the African elephant, the largest of the land mammals and master of territories where humans have retreated, remains vulnerable to danger - from hordes of intrepid lions or, worse still, extreme drought. If the elephant still manages to reign over its environment, it is because, like us, it is also a social animal. Where we see a herd, the elephant sees its family, its way of life, its refuge. Through this series of photographs, I aim to highlight what the survival instinct of elephants—creatures so different yet so akin to us—reveals about our own existence: to survive, one must unite; to stay alone is to die.