What you need to know
When Robert Irwin isn’t giving it his all on Dancing with the Stars or wrestling crocodiles in Australian wildlife reserves, he’s busy pursuing another passion: wildlife photography.
“I started doing it at a young age,” says Irwin, 21, who is following in his family’s footsteps by working at Australia Zoo, which was founded by his parents Steve and Terry Irwin.
“For me, it felt very personal in a way, because I’ve always felt like I was part of something much bigger than myself. I’ve always felt like I was part of a huge legacy that spanned generations that my mom and dad started,” he explains in a conversation with PEOPLE for our cover story. “And it’s a real honor to be able to continue that, but photography became kind of Robert’s way of continuing that legacy. It was something very personal to me.”
He says growing up in front of cameras (his birth was literally filmed for his father’s show Crocodile Hunter) gave him an appreciation for cinematography.
Robert Irwin/Instagram
“I always love being behind the camera as much as being in front of it,” he says. “I think just being around cinematographers and being in that world for a really long time makes you appreciate their craft. And then, growing up, I was able to go to some of the most incredible places in the world on conservation projects, and I ended up carrying a camera around, and it just kind of evolved from there.”
There is one danger that wildlife photographers face, he said. It is not a poisonous animal. It’s a thief.
“I was flying over Nairobi and I landed and I had a hard case full of camera equipment,” he recalls. “I had to check because it wasn’t suitable for carry-on.”
Robert said he did not see the main case come off the conveyor belt.
“I just thought, ‘That’s weird,'” he recalls. “I don’t know what it was, but I just said, ‘I’m going to check the conveyor belt again,’ and then I went back and out of the corner of my eye I saw a Pelican case. It was on a trolley and someone had taken it and walked out the front door and stolen it. It looked very distinct and had all the stickers on it, so there was no way you could mistake it for someone else’s.”
He said he approached the man and told him the case was his. “And he looked at me, looked around at everyone, handed it to me, and just started running,” Robert says. “But this happens all the time. It happens everywhere in the world.”
The experience didn’t deter him, he says.
“Photography is a real passion, because I can capture things that I experience and amplify them to the world and show them, ‘This is the beauty of the natural world and this is what we need to protect.’ I just want to help people connect with nature,” he added.
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For Robert, photographing the natural world also helps him feel more connected to his late father, who passed away in 2006.
“I was in a remote part of Queensland photographing palm cockatoos, an endangered bird that only exists in this region and one other outpost,” he says. “It’s a beautiful piece of land in my father’s memory. It’s called the Steve Irwin Wildlife Refuge. It’s remote, pristine forest, there are alligators everywhere. And it’s just a surreal experience to be in a place where you can just look up and think, ‘This is an endangered bird that maybe only a few other people have seen.'” And I’m just sharing an afternoon with it. It’s such an honor. ”
Dancing with the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8pm ET on ABC.
