Sarah Cheesbrough captures London’s urban wildlife through a lens
FROM Westminster Cathedral to Shakespeare’s Globe to a Victorian toilet converted into a café, there isn’t much you can’t see in the UK’S capital city.
However, one thing people may not ordinarily associate with London is wildlife.
But nature photographer Sarah Cheesbrough has found that nature flourishes in various corners of London which are often passed by unnoticed.
Her new book, “Wild Neighbours”, is a collection of photographs of over 80 different creatures she’s captured in and around London.
“If we weren’t all so busy, listening to our radios and ipods and phones, we’d see this is going on all the time,” Sarah says.
“It’s just about tuning into this particular aspect of life when you’re in the city.”
Sarah is a self-taught photographer and began by taking photos for magazines.
While this mostly consisted of photographing people, she had a niggling feeling that she should take her photography down a different route.
After a few years of daydreaming about it, she set about working on her “Wild Neighbours” project.
“For me, to change from doing people to animals was no big jump.
“I consider myself a portrait photographer, and so as I would work with people, I work with animals.
“With the animal pictures, I get really close and use quite a short lens, probably the same lens I would use to shoot a portrait for a person,” Sarah says.
Sarah wanted to show the creatures in her photos as they see each other, rather than as we see them.
She captured the shots which make up her book over a two-year period.
The book is divided into seasons, showing the changes in nature throughout the year.
“The pictures show the industry of the animals. During spring, for example, they’re all so busy!
“They’re all building their nests and collecting bits and bobs and bringing up their babies, finding food and fighting each other,” Sarah says.
Unlike photographing people, Sarah could not arrange to capture shots of animals at a certain time, day or location.
“You just have to see what turns up.
“You can’t plan anything,” Sarah says, explaining that spending five or six hours waiting for the perfect shot was not unusual.
However, spending so much time amongst nature
Mairi Hughes gets behind the lens with urban wildlife photographer Sarah Cheesbrough.
meant Sarah was able to fully immerse herself in her project.
“Sometimes, if I’m very lucky, I just sit with the creature until it no longer even realises I’m there, and then I will take some pictures.
“In those moments, I have this sense of incredible inner peace and absolute happiness and joy, because I’m in their world with them, and they’ve let me in,” she continues.
Being so absorbed in the animal kingdom meant Sarah learned a thing or two about the animals she was photographing.
“There was only one time when I thought, ‘Oh, back off’, and that was with a young stag,” she says.
“The stag was very confused because I was standing in his path, and I could see that he would probably charge me.
“So I bent down and started examining a flower, and got very low to the ground.
“And of course that was an act of submission, so he just walked on by.
“Animals have a sixth sense. They know if you come in peace.”
Wildlife in London is not always easy to spot amongst the busyness of the city.
How has this project changed Sarah’s perspective on urban wildlife?
“My awareness has grown because of it,” Sarah says.
“As you do it, you notice more and more things and different types of creatures.”
Sarah feels that an awareness of this nature which exists under our noses is more important now than ever, with an increasing number of animals being under threat of extinction every day.
Now that her book is finished, she says she wants to continue to be a bridge between humans and animals.
“In order to save nature, we have to love it.
“We tend to only fight for things that we feel an emotional attachment to.
“I wanted to reawaken in people their sense of wonder and their sense of love.
“It’s my hope that will then inspire a desire to join in the global movement to save nature, where everyone can do their little bit.” ■