Africa Through Mikhailia Petersen’s Lens

The Cape Town photographer finds inspiration and connection on a once-in-a-lifetime safari with Wilderness

A safari is not just an expedition—it is an education. For the Cape Town-based photographer Mikhailia Petersen, the chance to visit Tanzania, Rwanda, and Botswana for PhotoVogue proved to be a lesson well beyond the contours of her known universe.

This chance to explore the continent was the first time Petersen had ever left her native South Africa, an opportunity made possible thanks to Wilderness, the world’s leading conservation and hospitality company. With over 60 camps across eight African countries, Wilderness brings visitors to some of the continent’s most iconic and wild places. Their commitment to both environmental and social sustainability ensures that these untamed landscapes will remain that way for generations to come. This sense of responsibility would prove invaluable for Petersen when applying her authentic, narrative-driven lens.

Leaving her studio and her comfort zone behind, she embarked on a rich, layered experience that brought new creative challenges and expanded her perspective.

“It truly felt like two weeks suspended in a dream,” Petersen recalls. “You can look online and do your research… But to be in a place like Rwanda at Wilderness Bisate Reserve and see the volcanoes from my bedroom window, those are the things of dreams.”

Known primarily for her portraiture, Petersen took her practice far beyond the controlled confines of her studio for this collaboration. The resulting series, “Re-Membering the Continent: A Visual Love Letter,” combines portraits with fashion and environmental storytelling, celebrating not only these wild destinations but also the often behind-the-scenes individuals who make safaris possible along the way.

To create these portraits, Petersen channeled the unique cultural heritage of each country she visited. At Wilderness Usawa—set amidst the sprawling plains of Tanzania’s Serengeti and home to the Great Migration—Petersen clothed her subjects in traditional kanga cloth to capture the country’s self-expression, joy, and vibrance. In the volcanic highlands of Rwanda, known as “the Land of a Thousand Hills,” she felt drawn to the legacy of the ancient kings and queens of the highland country. And while staying at Wilderness Vumbura Plains in Botswana, she captured the mysterious floodplains of the Okavango Delta.