Beverly and Dereck Joubert are more than photographers and filmmakers; they're masterful storytellers. Their work has documented Africa's majestic wildlife for decades, introducing us to them as individuals –– animals with distinct personalities, relationships, and struggles. Their groundbreaking approach emphasizes the power of art to formulate change, and we have the immense privilege of hearing from this legendary husband-and-wife team on October 26. To truly understand the stories behind the lens and the lives they've touched, we asked Beverly and Dereck to share their thoughts on a life dedicated to the wild, their creative partnership, and the future of conservation.
Q: With over 40 years of work, you’ve not only captured incredible moments but also preserved the history of individual animals. How has following specific big cats over generations changed your perspective on conservation and the individual role each animal plays in its ecosystem?
A: Thank you. I believe that what we discovered was that these are individuals with distinct personalities and characters, each (like us) playing an important role in their societies. As a result we cannot count lions or leopards to understand their status, and we can’t use those statistics to determine hunting quotas or how many we can maintain in carrying capacities, etc. These are individuals not numbers. We worked with a leopard for four years, and produced films and books on her, and the world fell in love with her, but she was no different to the next leopard in the next forest, who also struggled with her mother, battled to make her first kill and find a mate. They are more like us than we are comfortable acknowledging because that changes the way we must engage with animals.
Q: Your life's work is a testament to your shared passion. How do you maintain the personal and creative partnership you've had for so many decades while living in such an isolated and demanding environment? What's your secret to being such a successful team?
A: Like many people, the initial spark of love or lust is the easy part. Maintaining that costs and is an investment –– often a selfless one. The extreme extension of that in our lives is that I will give my life to protect Beverly, and have brought her back from the brink of death, but the secret is about being as dedicated to earning that love and trust each day whether it is your first year together or your 40th. There is nothing that matters more. It also feeds what I consider the golden three pillars of life: love, health, and happiness, where no matter what the odds are, armed with those three –– that actually feed off each other –– nothing else matters.
Q: Over the years, you've witnessed significant changes in Africa's wild places. What has been the most heartening positive change you've seen in the fight for conservation, and what remains the most pressing challenge that keeps you motivated to keep working?
A: So many things give us hope. On a broad basis if you think about it, we share this planet with amazing but very scary creatures that can attack us and destroy our lives: elephants can steal our livelihoods and lions can kill our livestock and kill us, and we have the means to easily eradicate all wildlife. And yet, we haven’t so far. That is indicative that not all of us have that burning desire to purge the planet of nature and wildlife; in fact, the overwhelming majority sees value in it and understands that we have taken care of it so far, and will increasingly do so. Now, however, we need to ramp up our efforts to reverse declines based on that inherent goodness in us; that logical thought that without nature, we are nothing ourselves. I think the key to success is the messaging that preserving nature is not an altruistic pursuit but a necessary one for self-preservation of mind, body, and soul.
As the science solidifies and we become more intellectually advanced beings, we will understand more acutely that nature is a part of us, and us apart of it, not apart from it. So, hauling out a big gun and blasting one of the last big tusker elephants into oblivion will seem ever more distasteful to most of us.
Beverly and Dereck Joubert's journey is a powerful reminder that the most profound conservation work begins with a shift in perspective. As they so beautifully put it, their enduring partnership is built on the same principles as their love for the wild: a selfless investment and a deep commitment to a shared purpose.
Join us for WILD EYE: A Life in Photographs with Beverly and Dereck Joubert on October 26 in the Jack Singer Concert Hall at Werklund Centre.