The King
St Andrews Bay, South Georgia
Photographer: Shafik Meghji
Shafik Meghji is an award-winning travel writer, journalist and author whose work spans Latin America and South Asia, with a focus on culture, history and human rights. The co-author of more than 45 guidebooks, he writes for publications such as BBC Travel, National Geographic Traveller, Wanderlust and Geographical. Shafik’s first book, Crossed Off the Map: Travels in Bolivia, was shortlisted for the Edward Stanford Travel Book of the Year in 2023. His new book, Small Earthquakes: A Journey Through Lost British History in South America, is out now.
The King : Limited edition of 10 prints
£150 - A2 giclée print
£200 - Framed and mounted
If you wish to place and order (UK only) , please email john@illume.eco
On the east coast of South Georgia, St Andrews Bay is home to a colony of 400,000 king penguins. They are one of four penguin species found on the isolated island, which hosts a surprising profusion of wildlife, including around 98 per cent of the world’s Antarctic fur seals and roughly 50 cent of its elephant seals.
A rugged, inhospitable land of glaciers, mountains and fjords, South Georgia is one of the remotest places on earth. This sub-Antarctic British overseas territory is around 870 miles from its nearest inhabited neighbour, the Falkland Islands, and is only accessible by sea.
South Georgia was once the whaling capital of the South Atlantic, a brutal industry that decimated marine mammal populations in the region, driving many to the brink of extinction. Today, however, the island is an unlikely model of conservation. It is protected by one of the world’s biggest marine reserves and many species, including king penguins, are flourishing.
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