Pie Aerts | Saturday

Exploring the disconnect

Pie Aerts is a Dutch documentary and wildlife photographer with a genuine interest in conflict stories between humans and wildlife. Through his lens he investigates the complicated relationship between animals, humans and nature. In March 2020, when the world came to a stop, Pie started Prints for Wildlife. A fundraising that raised $ 700,000 for conservation / conservation in just one month.

Pie feels the urge more than ever to be “the voice of our planet”. He really feels like the stories that he tells should give the places he goes to a voice. In the past 5 years, Pie has visited some extremely remote corners of our planet. There he has documented the diminishing connection we have with our natural environment and with each other.

Many of his photos show how the world is doing anno 2020. We live in a world that is rapidly individualising and as a result we collectively care about ourselves and our own struggle for survival more than ever. In fact, we are losing connection, with each other and with the planet we live on. And that’s a very dangerous thing because people stop caring. People will only fight for what they see and understand.

Pie hopes that his photos contribute to making a change and to encourage people to care again. That they make people fall in love again with their surroundings and with each other. Because if you love something, you’re willing to fight for it, whether it’s a landscape, an animal or your neighbors. And that’s what our planet needs.

Pie will discuss his findings during this lecture through beautiful images. He also talks about his vision of effective conservation.