sarahlouisegalbraith's photostream

Hired by a private porcelain collector from New York, I spent one year traveling the world to photograph as many hippos in zoos as possible. What for? The photos are being hand-painted onto porcelain dinner service by Royal Copenhagen Porcelain. Just 23 at the time, I started my thirty-three country, five continent adventure - from Auckland to Hanoi , Berlin to Honolulu , Tokyo to Mexico City - with no idea what to expect. Juggling a strict itinerary (every four days was a new city ), I hassled taxi drivers, struggled with languages (what's hippo in Mandarin??), quizzed locals and bribed zoo keepers through 101 of the world's best and worst zoos. My encounters ranged from frightening (hippo attacks in Kyoto and muggings in Warsaw ), hilarious (meeting with hippo fanatics at the annual Hippolotofus Convention in Seattle) to romantic (falling in love on a Portuguese train). In the end, I photographed 283 different hippos which are represented on the 144 piece service.