Mattias Klum

Who is Mattias Klum?

Mattias Klum is a Swedish freelance photographer and film producer in natural history and cultural subjects. He is the son of Swedish academic educator Arne Klum and Ingegärd Klum, née Stefanson. Klum has worked full-time as a freelance photographer since 1986, and as a cinematographer and director on numerous film and television projects since 1994. Klum describes and portrays animals, plants, and natural and cultural settings in the form of articles, books, films, lectures and exhibitions.

Klum has had several wildlife documentaries shown on Swedish national TV and has also had his work featured in Wildlife Conservation, Audubon, Geo, National Geographic, Terre Sauvage, Stern, Der Spiegel and the New York Times among others.

In 1997 National Geographic Magazine published Mattias Klum's photographs for the first time, which made him the first Swede to have his work on the cover, then he was one of National Geographic's youngest contributors. Since 1997, he has produced a number of articles and twelve cover stories for the magazine, including "Malaysia's Secret Realm", "Asia's Last Lions", "Meerkats Stand Tall", "What Darwin Didn't Know" and "The Bite That Heals". Klum's photographs have been exhibited in one-man shows at reputable museums and art galleries in the USA, Sweden, Malaysia, India, Japan, Great Britain, Estonia, Denmark, Botswana, Spain, China and Singapore among other countries. Klum has published eleven books, five of them available in English: Exploring the Rainforest, Borneo Rainforest, Horse People, Being There and The Human Quest.