“In exploring the shared language and poetic sensibilities of all animals, I am working towards rediscovering the common ground that once existed when people lived in harmony with animals.”

Gregory Colbert is one of the artists whose works I admire and love most. Born in Toronto, Canada in 1960, he began his career in Paris in 1983 making documentary films on social issues. Filmmaking led him to fine arts photography and for the next ten years, he did not exhibit his art or show any films. He traveled to India, Burma, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Dominica, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tonga, Namibia, and Antarctica to film and photograph interactions between human beings, including himself, and animals - elephants, whales, manatees, sacred ibis, Antigone cranes, royal eagles, rhinoceros hornbills, cheetahs, and many other species. In 2002, he presented his work, the Ashes and Snow exhibition, for the first time at the Arsenale in Venice. It was the largest solo exhibition ever mounted in Italy. In spring 2005 the show opened on the Hudson River Park's Pier 54 in New York City in the first-ever nomadic museum. The exhibition and the museum have since moved to Santa Monica, California, Tokyo, and Mexico City. Ashes and Snow exhibition has no final destination, and many new species are added as the project evolves.

Japanese architect Shigeru Ban did a great job designing the nomadic museum. Filled which huge prints and movies projected on giant screens, it feels both monumental and intimate, thanks to deep shadows and natural textures of wood and granite, and evoques as much an exhibition space as it does a sacred temple.

Walking through it is a quasi mystical, out-of-time experience. He obviously goes to great lengths to share his contemplative vision of a spiritual, pure, unstained world where all animals look like serene, ancient gods. The works are very sensual and primal in a sense. I appreciate that the photographs and videos have not been manipulated by digital technology. Animals and humans were really there, everything you see really took place.

He has also recently started initiated the “Animal Copyright Foundation”, which aims at "renegotiating our contract with nature by collecting one percent of royalties from companies using images of animals in their ads, and distribute these funds to conservation projects around the world". He believes this could become the largest environmental fund in the world. It is common practice to compensate people for fair use of their images in advertising but this has not been the case for nature and animals. Whether you agree with the initiative or not, it is nice to see people proposing new pragmatic solutions to give back what we take.