Bio

George Dian Balan is a multi-award winning fine art wildlife photographer, scientist, author, inspirational speaker and world records discoverer, specialised in world record and world class individuals in iconic megafauna species.
 He creates timeless images by using an immersive approach, portraying as never seen before giants that have captured our imagination. He pays much attention not only to the subject selection, perspective and composition, but also to body postures. The artistic question he asked himself is: “if a Statue, a Monument were to be raised to a species, what would that look like?” Dian is the author of the award-winning book The World As It One Was (2020), which combines arresting visuals with solid science. For this endeavour, he selected pictures by 100 photographers from around the world and consulted 30 world class experts. He supports local conservation projects in Africa with proceedings from his book and from fine art prints, including as a two-time contributor to Prints for Wildlife, the world’s most financially successful fundraising of its kind.
 He was a member of the jury of the Golden Turtle Photography Awards (2023) and the Jackson Wild Film Festival (2022) and the curator of the exhibition Europe's Wild Heart (Brussels, 2019). He has exhibited alone or collectively around the world.
 Dian has 10 years of artistic, scientific and conservation experience working with big-tusked African and Asian elephants. In the process, a total of about 30 images with big-tusked elephants were awarded or were finalists in prestigious photography competitions such as The European Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Refocus Awards, MonoVisions Awards, Monochromatic Awards, HIPA Diversity, MontPhoto, Px3 Paris, Fine Art Photography Awards, Nature Photographer of the Year or Africa Geographic Photographer of the Year. In addition, Dian was also a finalist in HIPA COP 28 (2024), First Prize Winner (Montier, 2020), Grand Prize Winner (Untamed, 2018) and a finalist in Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards (2016).
 His pictures were published by Nat Geo, BBC Earth, GEO, Wild Planet Photo Magazine, Asian Geographic, Africa Geographic, Cranium, Ancient Origins, Nat'Images and Pachyderm, including several times as covers. Other pictures appeared in books such as Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards and Larger than Tigers.
 Dian is an accomplished speaker on biodiversity and environmental issues at events in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. For him, a thorough research is key when choosing his photographic subjects or deciphering the megafauna science.