I am a Angeleno native (California) living in London. I fell in love with Africa in 2013 and try to go there as often as I can to spend time in the stillness of Mother Nature and all her magnificent inhabitants. I have a particular love of leopards, which I find to be the most captivating, mesmerizing creatures.

In Africa, I find presence, awe, and healing that no other place offers. I think in another life, my soul must have lived down there. Every time I leave, I am already dreaming of my return. How lucky I have been to spend so much time in the bush, how lucky have I been to find a place I love so dearly.

Currently, my camera kit is comprised of Nikon bodies, as well as Nikon and Sigma lenses.

For print inquires please contact:  info@jenrobertsonwildlifephotography.com

I wrote this years ago…but it captures what I feel about this magical continent.

Africa.  The mere word conjures up dreams and sparks the imagination.  Most people that visit the continent love their time spent there, but a small percentage fall in love with it. I’m talking heart pounding, palms sweating, can’t shake it off your mind, kind of love.  I often wonder what the differences are between people who merely enjoy it, versus those whose lives are dramatically changed.  Those who check it off a bucket list, versus those whose heads stay in the dramatic African clouds for months and years on end.

 

When people find out I’ve visited the continent 7 times in three years, often traveling solo to fulfill the need to be there, they often think I’m a bit off my rocker (I lovingly place my husband in this bucket).  Others may think I just enjoy traveling. Some think I’m just addicted, or an ‘Africaphile’.  But few truly understand the draw.  A few months back, a good friend said in a matter of fact way, “I completely get it. It’s your soul country.”  Her words resonated deeply.  There was no criticism, no ridicule, just a simple and completely accurate assessment: Africa is my soul country (or more accurately put, my soul continent).

 

Africa brings back the magic of my youth, the thrill of the imagination, and the optimism of a child. It brings forth dreams of the wild, of heartbreakingly beautiful landscapes, of magnificent species, and of a way that life is supposed to be.  It’s the great outdoors, but to the extreme.  The circle of life triumphs and devastates before your eyes.  Emotions are raw. Joy and devastation run rampant.  In the Africa bushveld, the only thing that matters is survival. All of our daily trivialities are placed far in the back of the mind.  You wake before the sun, and sleep when night falls. Your body becomes reacquainted with nature, and as it does, a new energy takes hold.  An energy that comes when we reconnect with the way we are supposed to live, with the way of life that makes us thrive.

 

But what is, about the country, or perhaps about the person, that leads some to fall madly, deeply, passionately in love with it? Even people – such as myself – who have spent unnecessary time and energy managing their emotions to stay within reason. To be rational. Logical. Focused.  Even these people sometimes cannot help getting swept away by her magical hold.   Perhaps those people who fall in love feel disconnected from the life they live.  Perhaps they have squashed dreams and desires, or have merely been in ‘autopilot mode’ and Africa suddenly connects with the part of them that has long gone silent.  Some may simply have a love for the outdoors, or a love of the animals, and that is what calls to them.  Whatever it is, I have found that Africa calls to me from all angles, in many voices, at many times of the day.  Now, I not only dream during sleep, but during my waking hours.  As I did back during a time when anything and everything was possible.

 

Thank you, dear Africa. For revealing your heart to my guarded one. For taking me in and wrapping me in a loving embrace. For awakening my dreams, my imagination, and my desires. For taking a city girl outside of a city, and showing her the raw and sometimes vicious extremes of life and death on your land. Thank you Africa, for being my soul ‘country’.