Editor’s Note: We have received quite a bit of positive feedback about this feature on Gregory Franklin, specifically about his wildlife photography — so we’ve decided to update this post to include several photographs Franklin recently captured of a grizzly bear family in Alaska. We hope you enjoy the photos! You can listen to Gregory go into more detail about building his home, his work with sculpture, and much more on Chris Wakaluk’s podcast, The Stories That Brought You Here.
Gregory Franklin has travelled the world photographing bears in the wild. From pandas to grizzlies to polar bears, he has had a unique array of experiences while in the presence of these amazing animals. However, many of these moments took place not from a long way away, but from very close distances.
He describes the process and philosophy that has allowed him to be in incredible proximity with not only bears, but also with mountain gorillas – an experience he enjoyed during a trip to Bwindi, Uganda.
“I was incredibly fortunate, and I got to spend eight days with a family of 14 mountain gorillas…it was just incredible. I wouldn’t spend the night with them, I’d walk out but come in right at daybreak and then spend the whole entire day with them. Then the guide would come and get me at the end of the day…that was pretty amazing.” said Franklin in a recent interview.
His creativity extends well past photography. After a tragic circumstance occurred in his life, he felt moved to do something he had never done before: carve a 26-foot-tall healing pole on his property on Pender Island. This act of personal therapy had a profound impact on himself, but more so, on the lives of many others who have since visited the site at which it stands.
What came next was the epic, ten-year building project of his home, Franklin Castle. Based on 15th and 16th century architecture, and made mostly of limestone, he built this house, brick by brick, almost entirely on his own. This amazing structure is not just a place for him to enjoy, but also for the island community.
With all the incredible work he has done in his life, he has discovered a balance and flow that exists between labour and leisure. “At some point, those two opposites, they need to come together… so that they are one,” he said in a recent interview.
“When that balance, when that flow goes between the two, I’m doing labour and leisure exactly at the same time, and then it is no longer a task. You are having productive fun.”
You can listen to Gregory go into more detail about building his home, his work with sculpture, and much more on my podcast, The Stories That Brought You Here.
