Sumatran tiger
Driven by his passion for tigers, photographer Vladimir Cech Jr. spent four years visiting Southeast Asia’s jungles to capture images of the rare Sumatran tiger. This critically endangered species is rarely photographed in the wild, but Cech’s tenacity—and camera traps—made his dream a reality. The resulting portfolio of imagery is a wonderful look at life below the jungle canopy, giving a glimpse inside a world that often goes unseen.
Cech first began his project in 2019, and put diligent time and effort into it, even during the difficult years of COVID-19. By installing homemade DSLR camera traps, he hoped to document the elusive Sumatran tiger, but this proved to be more challenging than he had imagined. While the camera traps documented plenty of the jungle’s inhabitants, he continued to turn up empty-handed when it came to the tiger. But all that changed in the fall of 2024.
“I thought I was dreaming,” he tells My Modern Met when recalling the moment he first saw the tiger on film. All of his hard work had come to fruition, allowing him to fulfill his goal of shedding light on the Sumatran tiger and its plight.
This tiger, the smallest surviving subspecies, has seen its habitat reduced to a small area and faces significant risks. Poaching and habitat loss are major contributing factors. Deforestation for oil palm plantations is particularly devastating, as these tigers prefer large, undisturbed areas of forest to thrive. While many tigers live on protected land, poaching is still a harsh reality, particularly as their bones and other body parts continue to be used in Eastern medicine.
While Cech’s series has gone as viral as he’d wanted, he’s still hopeful that it can make an impact. “Hopefully, it will have the reach that the Sumatran tiger deserves.” In the meantime, he continues his documentation in Sumatra and is working on a new project to fulfill another of his big dreams. Stay tuned and follow Vladimir Cech Jr. on Instagram to see what he’s up to on this secret mission.
Since 2019, Vladimir Cech Jr. has been traveling to Indonesia in the hopes of photographing the Sumatran tiger.
This critically endangered tiger is found only in the jungles of Sumatra.
Cech has been placing homemade camera traps for years and has captured numerous forest inhabitants.
Sun bear
Sumatran serow
Banded linsang
Southern pig-tailed macaque
Porcupine
Langur monkey
Thomas's langur
But it wasn’t until the fall of 2024 that he finally got a glimpse of the elusive tiger.
