Collected Moments of Survival

Breath of the Earth Charcoal on paper 70cm x 90cm As a photographer, I have always been fascinated by dust. There is something about the way it changes an image — softening the landscape, catching the light, creating atmosphere where there was none a moment before. Some of my favourite photographs have happened because of dust. An animal appears through it and, for a few seconds, seems almost to emerge from mist. I had walked past this particular dust bowl many times. I knew it was there. I knew what the animals used it for. But I had never really stopped to think about what it might offer photographically. Then one day, a zebra dropped to the ground. Almost immediately, dust began to rise around it. I turned the lens towards it. Of course, I knew why the zebra was doing what it was doing. There was nothing unusual about the behaviour itself. But suddenly the ordinary became something else. The dust lifted around the animal, catching the light and softening the edges of its body. For a...

Rather shockingly, a small amount of research about African animals reveals the following: There were once 100 000 Black Rhinos in Africa, now there are approximately 2700. In 1930 there were 5 – 10 million African Elephants and now we have less than 600 000. 100 years ago African Wild Dog packs numbered up to 100 per pack seen on the Serengeti Plains. Now a pack is usually 10 dogs and we have about 1 500 dogs left in Africa. The African Lion numbered 50 000 roaming free only about a decade ago. Now we have around 10 000. In 1900 there were 100 000 wild cheetah in Africa, now the number is closer to 10 000. Please note that the above statistics are unverified and should be taken as being approximate. On the other side of the scale the world population figures read as follows: 1800 - 1 billion 2000 - 6 billion 2012 – 7 billion Have you got out of your seat yet? The next statistic to look at is the land area of the earth. 150 ...