{"id":258025,"date":"2026-01-26T07:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T07:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/258025\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T07:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T07:43:09","slug":"the-extraordinary-wildlife-photography-of-alejandro-prieto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/258025\/","title":{"rendered":"The extraordinary wildlife photography of Alejandro Prieto"},"content":{"rendered":"

Confluences is a book you can\u2019t possibly put down, once you start paging through it. Whether you come across photos of prairie dogs or flamingos, blue whales or blue-footed boobies, you know immediately that Guadalajara native Alejandro Prieto loves all the members of the animal kingdom.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father would take us out into nature, and that\u2019s where I fell in love with animals,\u201d Prieto told Mexico News Daily. As a result, I studied veterinary medicine and zootechnology, but then along came a course in photography in the Colegio de Fotograf\u00eda del Occidente. And I found my niche.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The Jaguar Corridor, Jalisco-Nayarit. (Alejandro Prieto)<\/p>\n

Confluences is a hard-backed, large-format book of 208 pages published by Artes de M\u00e9xico, 2024. It has 65 color photos, all taken by Alejandro Prieto, with seven chapters of text written by various naturalists.<\/p>\n

Photographing jaguars in the wild<\/p>\n

Prieto\u2019s extraordinary skill at taking photos both on land and underwater brought him into projects that might have discouraged many another photographer.<\/p>\n

One of these is the work he carries out for Alianza Jaguar<\/a>, an organization that needed quality photos of jaguars in their natural habitats, to promote their projects to protect and ensure them a future in Mexico. To get those pictures, endless hours of effort and patience were the order of the day. Later, when Prieto got involved with photographing certain elusive species of the Mexican axolotl, which live in the remote mountains of Michoac\u00e1n, the problem was surviving ice-cold temperatures underwater.<\/p>\n

The roadrunner and the border wall<\/p>\n

One of Prieto\u2019s more recent projects, photographing animals whose habitat has been cut in two by the border fence separating the USA from Mexico, brought a new sort of problem.<\/p>\n

\"\"Roadrunner Approaching the Border Wall, Naco, Arizona. (Alejandro Prieto)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a dangerous place,\u201d the photographer confided. \u201cOn one hand, you\u2019ve got border patrols that will grab you and take you out of there, and on the other, you\u2019ve got drug runners who will do something even worse if they catch you\u2026 and on top of that, you have to put up with both extreme heat and extreme cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, from that hostile environment came Prieto\u2019s unforgettable photo of a roadrunner eyeballing an insurmountable wall wrapped in great coils of razor wire: winner of the 2020 World Press Photo Award for Nature.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just one of 53 International awards that Alejandro Prieto has received so far, an assurance that Confluences is just the sort of book you\u2019ll want to leave lying on your coffee table accidentally.<\/p>\n

Canyons, forests, deserts and swamps<\/p>\n

Why is this book entitled Confluences?<\/p>\n

University of Wisconsin Professor Eduardo Santana makes this clear in the first chapter. West Mexico, he says, \u201cdoes not have a monolithic identity\u2026 What defines its essence is the confluence of dissimilarities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santana is referring to the astounding variety of natural wonders lying in wait for anyone who wanders about West Mexico.<\/p>\n

\"\"American pelicans, Petat\u00e1n, Michoac\u00e1n. (Alejandro Prieto)<\/p>\n

These include smoldering volcanoes, 500-meter-deep canyons, mangrove swamps, tropical jungles, grasslands, hot springs, oak and coniferous forests, desert scrub lands, and much more.\u00a0 Each environment has its own flora and fauna, not to mention the long-distance migrants: flying creatures of all sorts from hawks and pelicans to bats and butterflies. Put all these together in a relatively small space, and you have geodiversity and biodiversity in abundance.<\/p>\n

And, of course, wherever two or more systems come together, you have confluences.<\/p>\n

A jungle on a mountain top<\/p>\n

Academic studies are not required to appreciate what happens in the many places where ecosystems merge. An excellent example was given to me by another Santana named Aldo, a member of the Cuzalapa people living in the heart of the picturesque Manantl\u00e1n Biosphere Reserve, located along the state line dividing Jalisco from Colima:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Sierra de Manantl\u00e1n is unique!\u201d exclaims Aldo Santana. \u201cIn it, you will find things that are normally seen only in Chiapas, or you\u2019ll find other things typical of Sonora. So, it is mega-diverse! It is as if you were seeing all the ecosystems together in one place. And if you are here during the rainy season, you will find everything green, a jungle. It\u2019s a tropical jungle on a mountain top!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Underwater in the Gulf of California
\n\"\"Horse mackerel and sardine school, Revillagigedo Islands, Baja California Sur. (Alejandro Prieto)<\/p>\n

The photographs in Confluences take us on a tour of West Mexico\u2019s extraordinary geo and biodiversity, whether on land, in the air or, underwater.<\/p>\n

We are introduced to marine life in the Sea of Cort\u00e9s, home to an enormous array of environments, from deep basins to some of the largest tidal zones in the world. Thanks to Prieto\u2019s skills as a diver and underwater photographer, we are introduced to silky sharks, dolphins, sea lions, surgeon fish, needle fish\u2026 as well as the marine birds flying overhead.<\/p>\n

Among the many delightful creatures we find photographed in this book, three fascinating species stand out: jaguars, axolotls, and \u201cflying white sheep,\u201d otherwise known as American pelicans to those of us with less imagination than the Mexicans living on the shores of Lake Chapala.<\/p>\n

Friends of the jaguars<\/p>\n

An entire chapter is dedicated to this emblematic feline. Award-winning journalist Agust\u00edn del Castillo dives into the story of why and how the Jaguar Alliance came into being, and what they are doing today to transform hostile ranchers into friends of the big cats. We also follow Alex Prieto in his quest to photograph these magnificent animals in their natural surroundings: no easy task!<\/p>\n

Flying sheep and walking fish
\n\"\"Pink Flamingo Feeding Young, R\u00edo Lagartos, Yucat\u00e1n. (Alejandro Prieto)<\/p>\n

Del Castillo devotes two additional chapters to axolotls and American pelicans.<\/p>\n

Axolotls \u2014 incorrectly known as \u201cMexican walking fish\u201d \u2014 are among the strangest creatures on the planet. These photogenic amphibians are famed for their ability to regenerate just about every part of their bodies, including their brains and hearts. Once abundant in Mexico, their numbers are now dwindling due to the ever-increasing pollution of the country\u2019s lakes, ponds, and rivers.<\/p>\n

The American pelicans, on the other hand, seem to be doing better than ever. These huge birds live in Canada and along the northern US border. Every year around September, they begin their 4000-kilometer migration to warmer climes, in particular to Lake Chapala.<\/p>\n

By chance, there is a successful fish-filleting operation on the tiny island of Petat\u00e1n, Michoac\u00e1n, at the southeast end of the lake, and here the pelicans gather by the thousands to enjoy the scraps. Among the many visitors to Petat\u00e1n \u2014 fascinated by the site and sound of ten thousand \u201cflying white sheep\u201d\u00a0 taking off and landing \u2014 was photographer Alejandro Prieto, and thanks to him, owners of Confluences can vicariously enjoy the show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To get your own copy of this extraordinary book \u2014 whether in English or in Spanish, you are asked to donate to the Jaguar Alliance. For full information, send an email to alianzajaguar@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

John Pint<\/a> has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 years and is the author of \u201cA Guide to West Mexico\u2019s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area\u201d and co-author of \u201cOutdoors in Western Mexico.\u201d More of his writing can be found on his website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Confluences is a book you can\u2019t possibly put down, once you start paging through it. Whether you come…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46,131177,2081,386],"class_list":{"0":"post-258025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-mexican-artists","12":"tag-photography","13":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}