“The Earth is art – the photographer is only a witness.”
Yann Arthus-Bertrand (French photographer and environmentalist)
I saw this hand-lettered sign tucked amongst the branches of a bush in Tanzania earlier this month. We were in the early days of our trip and its message resonated deeply. I paused, allowing the words to percolate and, with my iPhone, took a picture to remember. Like a memo to my soul, the quote offered an invocation for my journey.
In preparing to visit our 6th continent, Africa, I knew I would be taking many photos. Photography was my first creative outlet, a portal, eventually, to my art practice. I received my first “big camera”, a Canon AE-1 Program SLR that sits proudly on a bookshelf outside my studio, from my mom over 40 years ago, while in college. Capturing images with that camera for an elective course project in medical school got me out of the library and kept me sane that first, cold winter in Boston. Since then, I’ve swapped film for pixels and mail-order prints for digital albums, but my love of photographing what I notice, what I witness, has never changed. From the historic, weathered covered bridge near my childhood home in Adams County (first photos with that OG film camera) to the discarded kitchen pot simmering with imaginative ingredients (sticks and leaves and flowers) in the “garden soup” lovingly “cooked” by the creative hands of my boys (first photos with my digital upgrade, a Canon Rebel DSLR camera) to the overheated elephant trumpeting cooling water from the river onto her parched back (one of my favorite photos from this recent trip with my brand new, mirrorless camera), photography has been my lens, my way of seeing and recording the extraordinary beauty in the seemingly ordinary moments and objects of my life.
Specifically for this trip, I purchased the Canon R5 Mark ll camera with its plethora of bells and whistles and, ever the student, watched countless hours of videos, learning how to maximize the potential of its 45 megapixels. Looking to develop my skills, I visited a local dog park to practice taking action photos of large breeds, sprinting and lunging for tossed balls, as well as still shots of diminutive pups, modeling coiffed fur and dainty bows. For a trip with a strict 33-pound limit for my combined checked plus carry-on bags, I packed over 10 pounds of photographic equipment (camera plus long zoom lens plus 2nd lens) into my backpack and committed to hand laundering clothes each night. Off I went with high hopes of capturing “once in a lifetime” memories.
On our very first safari outing, I rushed to take photos of any wildlife we spotted. Often images of single, standing-like-a-statue animals, I was excitedly documenting, “Holy zebra, I’m in Africa!”
Several game drives into our trip (we visited Tanzania’s Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti NP, Kenya’s Masai Mara NR, and Botswana’s Chobe NP), I relaxed into the sheer abundance of wildlife we were encountering. Growing more patient and more comfortable with my camera’s buttons, dials, and settings, I slowed into a heightened state of presence. Only then did I see more than solitary species. Pausing before I depressed the shutter release, I waited to allow stories to unfold, to notice mannerisms and interactions amongst the animals in the savannah’s wild kingdom. I evolved from documentarian to awe-inspired witness of the natural world, of earth, in all its diversity and beauty, as art.
Of the thousands (seriously!) of photos I took, here are a few examples of my witnessing:
Top middle: The mutualistic symbiosis of the multiple red-billed oxpeckers lining this giraffe’s long neck. The birds eat pesky parasites from the skin of large animals, each benefitting the other (just like the yellow-billed oxpecker on zebra above). Top left and top right plus bottom photo: The mad skills and crazy contortions of a giraffe’s long, rubbery tongue as she carefully extracts leaves from the well-defended Acacia tree’s thorny branches.
The comical, emoji-like, ear wagging of this hartebeest (left) and guffawing of this blue monkey (right).
The babies — and baby makes 3 (top left), walking in dad’s footsteps (top middle), learning to climb (top right), nursing (middle), family meeting (bottom) — were such a delight to watch!
The steely gaze of this male (left) and sleepy yawn of this female (right) lion.
The aftermath of a lion kill. We watched in stunned amazement as a powerful female chased and drug down a young Cape buffalo running unprotected on the flank of its fleeing herd. Afterward the male lion, who’d observed the chase from the shade of a nearby tree, approached her (left), then rested his head on the dead Cape buffalo (middle), then nuzzled the female lion (right) in what felt like an homage of gratitude to both her and the buffalo.
The elephants playfully tossing water and dust – anything to stay cool in the near 100 degree temperatures!
The enchanting sea of spots — resting leopard (top left and bottom), pouncing serval cat (middle), and well-fed cheetah (top right), proof that a cheetah is, indeed, faster than a gazelle.
The kindness of one baboon’s meticulous care of another.
The serenity of the setting sun’s glowing orb, with an elephant at the river’s edge (top) and a boat named “Pure Africa” (bottom). These gorgeous benedictions to our days were magical and, without a doubt, “pure Africa.”
The earth, its intricate web of life, IS art. Throughout our trip, via the lens of my camera, I am incredibly grateful to have been a witness.
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