Faces I have met
If you have photographed animals on five continents for a couple of decades, it is perhaps not surprising that the label nature photographer is attached to your work. But in Roine Magnusson's case, the title should rather be portrait photographer. In his world of images, the individual is always more important than the herd; the individual animal weighs more heavily than the species. Whether the person portrayed happens to be a chimpanzee, a great grey owl or a human is of less importance. The essential thing is the encounter.
Roine wants the person photographed to be aware of his presence. Only then can the picture be called a portrait, he believes. That's why he is reluctant to use long telephoto lenses these days; the moment you put the five hundred millimeter telephoto on the camera, you have distanced yourself. He also doesn't like to sit in hiding. The whole idea of hiding is that the animal shouldn't know that you are there.
But the idea of Faces I have met goes beyond the desire to show pretty pictures. Meetings with individuals – getting close to another creature, maybe even making eye contact – is a way to arouse a sense of respect. At best, awe. Roine wants the pictures to convey a sense of community across species boundaries and arouse understanding of animals' right to live a decent life.
So he doesn't just want us to look at the old female chimpanzee with the wreath of white hair around her chin, the furrowed face, and the sad look. He wants us to see the.