Wildlife Documentary Photographer

Vivienne Gunning has spent more than 30 years exploring and leading journeys across 34 African countries — first from the air as cabin crew with South African Airways, and later from the ground as an expedition leader. For the past two decades, she has led and co-led National Geographic Expeditions across Southern Africa. Throughout her career, she has managed complex logistics and guest experiences for multi-country expeditions, combining operational expertise with a passion for meaningful travel.

A Fine Art graduate of the University of Pretoria with a Professional Digital Photography certification from the University of Cape Town, Vivienne photographs in the documentary tradition — unstaged, often in black and white — seeking the details that reveal deeper truths: a wrinkle, a glance, a gesture. Her archive spans the Swahili Coast, West and Central Africa, Egypt, India, and the great wilderness areas of Southern Africa. She is also a recognised specialist in accessible travel, helping open Africa's wild places to travellers with mobility challenges through thoughtful, field-tested journey design. She serves on the Advisory Board of Accessible Travel Press, where she is a contributing author, and is currently completing her FGASA Field Guide qualification while continuing to design and lead her own expeditions, including Women Walking the Delta, a women's walking expedition in the heart of the Okavango Delta.

Vivienne's National Geographic story began long before she led her first expedition. Growing up on her grandparents' tobacco farm on the Limpopo River, she listened as her grandmother read National Geographic magazine aloud to her. She has been closing the distance between those pages and the living Africa ever since: 'My feet on the earth. My eyes on the horizon.'