A Journey into the Desert with
Leo Francis ABIPP We all fantasise about leaving the monotony of life to travel the globe and visit the beautiful natural wonders of the world – for Leo Francis ABIPP – this dream is a reality. Combining his adventurous spirit, love of extreme sport and creative vision, Leo works as a photographer on behalf of Red Bull, regularly having work featured in the national media and getting sponsored kit from leading photography outlets. In this piece, he takes us through a photographer’s enduring journey to capture some of the most intense athletic endeavours, in the remotest destinations and severest conditions.
I
n the heart of Namibia is the Namib desert. Namib means ‘vast place’, which gives a slight insight into the scale and grandeur of the oldest desert on earth. The sand dunes of the Namib desert and the famous Skeleton Coast are perhaps two of the most photographed landscapes in the world – in equal part alluring, evocative, mysterious and foreboding.
In the ancient expanse of the Namib-Naukluft National Park, with the Namib desert at its heart, endless skies merge with the world’s highest, towering sand dunes - they stretch out for hundreds and hundreds of miles nothing else - just sand and sky. And then, at the coast, the Atlantic breakers come crashing onto the shore amid colonies of thousands of seals, rolling in on the cold seas of the Benguela Current all the way from Antarctica. It is an inhospitable, brutal and utterly beautiful part of our planet.
Issue One / 2023 / the PHOTOGRAPHER 49
