Focus on the Rainforest by Daniel Beltra

Press preview and soft opening of photographer Daniel Beltra's exhibition Focus on the Rainforest with The Prince’s Rainforests Project and Sony exhibition, Nash Conservatory, Kew Gardens, London. September 30, 2009.

Daniel Beltra, Focus on the Rainforest from Edmond Terakopian on Vimeo.

Winner of this year's Prince's Rainforests Project via the Sony World Photography Awards, Daniel Beltra, has his new exhibition is opening to the public from October 3rd to December 6th, 2009 at Kew Gardens. The theme is the project shot for the PRP, Focus on the Rainforest.

The exhibition is a collection of very graphical and interesting images from the Amazon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia, depicting deforestation around the world, and showing some of its effects to our environment.

Beltra's list of awards is impressive. He has two World Press Photo awards, winning Best of Photojournalism and International Photography/Lucie contests and is a fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers. He has also won the Global Vision Award from the Pictures of the Year International contest, to name but a few. His career began by being a photojournalist in his native Spain and he has shown the same journalistic approach to documenting the state of our environment, concentrating on man's effects on it.

His love of nature and the environment drove him to freelance for Greenpeace for the past 20 years. He is represented by the prestigious Reportage by Getty Images.

The standard of photography is stunning, and only outdone by the versatility shown by Beltra's approach. Images taken from the air showing natural beauty and toxicity of the human condition are only matched by the sensitivity and respect shown to the subjects of his photographs on the ground. He is equally at home in the air with his Canon 100-400mm lens, as he is on the ground with a 24-70mm on his Canon 5D MkII.

I can't recommend this exhibition highly enough; definitely put aside some time and go and see it.

If you'd like to be kept up to date with his projects, become a fan on Beltra's fan page on FaceBook or visit his website and follow the blog link there.