A truly beautiful collection of luxurious images, Among the Living, Where You Belong showcases the magnificent wildlife photography taken by photographer and explorer Guadalupe Laiz.

For this book, Guadalupe travelled across the African continent for six years, forgoing comfort for months at a time—returning with intimate portraits of charismatic and fierce, yet often vulnerable and endangered animals. It is impossible to look at one of her photographs—really see it—and not feel her subject’s innate individuality. She spends time with these creatures up close in their natural habitats, gets to know them personally over time, and builds on trust and respect in encounters with such creatures as Big Craig, the biggest elephant tusker in Kenya, the famous Susa gorilla family in Rwanda, or Bob Jr., the majestic lion dubbed the King of the Serengeti in Tanzania—among many others, including rhinos, giraffes, zebras, leopards, and more.

Her work reveals something anyone who has been around such animals at close range knows: these beasts are intelligent and self-interested. They love. They fear. They have needs and desires, and they deserve to be themselves and be seen for what and who they are.

Guadalupe’s work is vital. Ultimately, Guadalupe’s efforts are to communicate through art the importance of animal abuse awareness, environmental issues, and the relevance of educating all generations to make conscious lifestyle decisions to protect our planet. Beautiful and transporting, Guadalupe’s work is also a call to action. She inspires us to become wildlife advocates, and to join conservation efforts whichever way we can. Guadalupe has partnered with nonprofits involved with environmental issues, animal abuse, and human-animal conflicts in Africa, such as the Dian Fossey Foundation, Big Life Foundation, Save Giraffes Now, and Lewa Conservancy for Rhinos, as well as engaged in humanitarian work with 4africa in South Sudan and north Uganda.

Guadalupe offers this collection, a labour of love, of her encounters with this wildlife, chronicling the many linked moments she witnessed in the intimacy of their everyday journeys.