London, England (CNN) -- Famed for his extraordinary images of animals, British photographer Tim Flach says his work is more than just about creating "pretty pictures."



"You can have beautiful pictures, but they should be engaging pictures. There must be content to it, it should open up questions," Flach told CNN.

In stark contrast to wildlife photography, Flach takes highly conceptual portraits of animals, often likened to classical portraiture.

Best know for his pictures of horses and dogs, Flach says his work aims to explore issues surrounding mankind's relationship to animals -- looking at everything from grooming to cloning.

In one series of photographs, Flach explores the complex issues surrounding reproduction and genetic engineering by simply recording the transformation of a horse embryo to fetus.

"I look at the embryo and there is wonderment and beauty. But on another level a comment on how we engineer and how we determine the outcome of a species," said Flach.

His photography has taken him to some of the most remote and extreme places on earth, including Iceland, where he photographed Huskies, Mongolia, to capture the only wild horses left in the world, and the Masai Mara in Africa in order to photograph the three species of zebras.

"I go to places because there is something I need to show there, very often to do with the way the animals have adapted to the environment," he said.

Having just returned from Borneo and about to head off to Africa, Flach is now planning to challenge himself further.

"I'm working on images of rainforests at the moment, looking at ecological processes and the pressures we put on them."

He continued, "I think the challenge of photography now is to not just to look at the aesthetics but to raise understanding and relevant and important questions around issues."