Rebel, Benny

Benny Rebel, born Bahman Vafaeinejad, (born August 13, 1968, Arak, Iran), German Iranian photographer known for his extreme close-up portraits of dangerous African wildlife. He captured the dramatic images by approaching within feet of the animals, a tactic that provoked some into displaying threat behaviours.

In 1987 Rebel immigrated to Hannover, Germany. He then worked at a variety of jobs, all the while cultivating his photographic skills on the side. His interest in wildlife conservation led to his involvement with the environmental advocacy group Greenpeace. Rebel was a frequent entrant in photography contests, and in 1998 he won a single-lens reflex (SLR) camera and began more seriously pursuing what had been an avocation. He worked for a photography supplier until 2004.

Rebel eventually employed a more-extensive array of equipment—most of it digital—including a remote-controlled eight-propellered contraption equipped with a camera that could capture images of normally inaccessible animals from the air. He staged his first exhibition of photos—“Zu schön um zu sterben” (“Too Beautiful to Die”), comprising images of threatened wildlife he encountered mostly in South Africa—in Hannover in 2000. In 2002 and 2003 he was awarded gold medals in the nature category of Austria’s popular Trierenberg Super Circuit photography contest. “Bedrohte afrikanische Schönheiten” (“Endangered African Beauties”), another exhibition, opened at Galerie im Keller in Hannover in 2003.

Some of Rebel’s more confrontational images, captured at close range, featured clearly agitated animals. His approach flew in the face of conservation orthodoxy, which exhorted the observation of animals only from a respectful distance. In his extensive travels, Rebel nonetheless found no shortage of subjects, which ranged from half-tame animals raised on game reserves to fully wild animals in national parks. He claimed to have gained unique insights into animal behaviour while he explored the African bush under the guidance of indigenous peoples.

In 2006 he returned to Iran to photograph the unique assemblage of wildlife there; his journey was chronicled in the documentary Wild Iran (2007). Ungezähmt (2006; Untamed) was a book of his images from Africa and the Galápagos Islands. The book Die Tiere Afrikas in 3-D/Wildlife of Africa in 3D (2007) featured images of an array of African animals captured by using three-dimensional photographic technology; it included 3-D glasses for viewing. Rebel related some of his peregrinations in Mein Abenteuer Wildnis: Erlebnisse eines Tierfotografen (2010; “My Wilderness Adventure: Experiences of a Wildlife Photographer”). Bild-Design (2010; “Image Design”) was a book of photography tips.

Rebel was a frequent talk-show guest in Germany and toured primary schools, where he employed his photographs in presentations that aimed to increase awareness of conservation issues.