At the end of September, the head of marketing at Berlin Zoo called me and asked me what I was up to between now and Christmas. She didn’t want to tell me much more on the phone, just one thing – a big event was coming up. A very big event. Shortly afterwards, I was standing with her in a separate area of the zoo. Panda lady Meng Meng was sitting in front of us – heavily pregnant. With twins. There was no sign of the panda’s excitement, he was gnawing on his bamboo with relish. But the excitement at the zoo was great. A twin birth of pandas had only ever happened in Toronto and Vienna. This was a world sensation. The press would be jostling for the best seats.

To spare the panda lady the stress of a pack of nervous journalists running around her non-stop, the zoo wanted to take the film and photo production into their own hands and serve the press from a single source – and I was to assist Christiane’s team with advice and support. In a total of 6 sessions, I was the only external photographer allowed to photograph the little pandas and shoot footage for the social media channels until the workflow was finally so well-rehearsed that the zoo’s social media team took over the production itself. These are the photos of the first weeks of the two panda babies Meng Xiang and Meng Yuan.

You can find out more on the project page.