Exploring Namibia’s Skeleton Coast: Doug Harman Speaks to Thorsten Milse

by Amanda on Dec 22nd, 2011

The Canon Professional Network features a lengthy interview with renowned wildlife and landscape photographer, Thorsten Milse. Milse speaks to Doug Harman about Namibia’s arresting Skeleton Coast, the subject of his recent collection, Skeleton Coast: Africa’s Last Wilderness.

According to Milse, the Skeleton Coast, which constitutes “roughly one third of Namibia’s south-west coastline”, is so named because of the large number of shipwrecks and whale skeletons that adorn its beaches:

Thorsten Milse’s passion for wildlife photography has a firm emphasis on conservation, and his new book ‘Afrikas letzte Wildnis: Namibias Skelettküste’ (‘Africa’s Last Wilderness: Namibia’s Skeleton Coast’) highlights just such a relationship. It’s the relationship between the environment that is Namibia’s notorious Skeleton Coast, one of Africa’s toughest regions for any animal to survive in, and the wildlife that ekes out a living there.

The Skeleton Coast National Park forms roughly one third of Namibia’s south-west coastline. It’s a coastline that achieved its epithet from the large number of famous ship wrecks on its drifting sands, the remains of many whale skeletons left over from the whaling trade of old, and more than a few human remains, which hint at the low probability of the survival for those unfortunate enough to end up shipwrecked there.