'What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.'
Chief Seattle, American Indian chief of the Suquamish (1786-1866)
For a man who has 'danced' with a 55-tonne sperm whale and come face to face with all manner of wild animals, including leopards, cheetahs and elephants, Gregory Colbert exudes calm. In fact, he appears almost unflappable, despite confessing that this is the most he has spoken in 13 years.
It's a cool spring day in New York and the sun is finally making an appearance. Colbert, however, has been stuck indoors all day, conducting a barrage of interviews with journalists from around the world who are in the Big Apple for his Ashes and Snow exhibition. Despite the punishing schedule, he remains gracious - and is not at a loss for words when it comes to his life's work.
The Canadian artist's 'silence' began 13 years ago, when he embarked on a remarkable quest to capture the mystical and unique relationship between man and beast through a quartet of mediums. He had just held his first public exhibitions at the Musee de l'Elysee in Switzerland and Parco Galleries in Japan. Then Colbert apparently disappeared off the face of the Earth, refusing all media interviews and declining to exhibit or publish his work. He swapped his life in Paris, where he made documentary films about social issues, to travel to distant lands and photograph humans interacting with 'nature's living masterpieces', as he calls them.
'The response from my first exhibition meant I was free to do the work that I really dreamed of doing,' Colbert says.