Jean-Paul Ferrero was the founding photographer of Auscape and is revered around the world for his body of work. Jean-Paul immigrated to Australia from France in 1982 and established Auscape in 1985. After settling briefly in Canberra where Auscape was born, he moved the agency to Sydney where it remained until 2005.

Jean-Paul’s techniques evolved over the course of his lifetime and enabled him to photograph both wildlife and landscapes with exceptional skill. As a child, Jean-Paul was passionate about snakes, joined a herpetological society and kept a vivarium in his bedroom. He toyed with the idea of becoming a zoologist but his developing interest in photography decided his eventual profession. Snakes remained a particular interest throughout his life but it was his ability to turn his eye to almost anything in the natural world and create images of extraordinary vision that has become his legacy.

While he would have been the last to describe himself as an artist, he always approached his subjects with a complex mix of in-depth knowledge and artistry to leave us with a body of work that is hard to surpass. Jean-Paul’s final subject, the Kagu of New Caledonia, was photographed in almost impossible conditions presented by dense tropical rainforest and represents yet another achievement, along with the red crabs of Christmas Island, dingo pups in their den, and his many unique aerial images of Australia. Jean-Paul was happiest when out in the field and whenever he was back in Sydney his increasing restlessness would inevitably herald another trip somewhere.

“Taking photographs always gives me pleasure: trying a new technique or spending a fabulous morning at the top of a tree observing everything that happens, even if in the end the photograph isn't marvellous. I hardly ever get bored with what I see in the wild, unlike the politicians whose portraits I used to take once. It's amazing to be in a hide. All wildlife photographers would probably say the same. You can spend an entire day doing nothing except wait for the right moment. It's unbelievable how the time flies! When you're watching, when you're in symbiosis with your surroundings, you're so absorbed that you become part of it all. And it can very well happen that you don't take a single shot.”

Jean-Paul was always ready to nurture promising photographers and would give freely of his experience. As director of a photographic agency, he saw it as part of his role to encourage talented photographers and provide constructive critiques of their work. If there is any one message that he repeated time and again, it was to research the subject and understand the angles that would provide the most accurate images. As time progressed, Jean-Paul increasingly sought the advice of scientists before embarking on a field trip. His approach to his subjects was a scientific one and he denied that photography was an art form. While he always strove to create beautiful images, he never understood the need for photographers to display their work in galleries. Jean-Paul preferred to see his images in the pages of books and magazines where they would be seen by many. His work has been published in every major magazine and has appeared in countless books, the most recent; A Remarkable Eye, published in 2001 by Penguin Books Australia.

Despite his tireless energy and seemingly limitless enthusiasm, his life was cut short in 2000 at the age of 50 when he succumbed to pancreatic cancer. Jean-Paul is survived by wife Anne and son Kallen and is greatly missed.

"There exist certain things I find beautiful, but because they’re inexplicable, the best way to share them is to take pictures of them.”

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