I am, first and foremost, a
wildlife photographer. My interest stems from a love of wildlife that I
developed as a small child. However, until the advent of digital cameras my
output was very limited, mainly because I was concerned about wasting precious
film. Nowadays I can instantly review my images on the back screen of my
digital camera, delete the bad ones and, if my subject(s) is still around, take
more photographs, correcting for exposure, depth of field etc. all the time.
Suddenly wildlife photography has become much easier both for me and for
millions of others around the world.
After I started OCA course work
in 2007 I began to realise that there was more to learn about photography than
simply improving techniques in order to produce better pictures. Photography had
become integrated within the world of art and major photography exhibitions
were appearing with increasing regularity in London. Very slowly I started to understand that producing aesthetically pleasing images did not guarantee
recognition, particularly within the art world. Partly in order to broaden my
horizons I dabbled in other areas of photography, in particular the use of
reflections to create abstract images. I joined the London Independent
Photographic Society (LIPS) for a couple of years and made a substantial effort
to understand the photography that appeared in their monthly magazines and
annual exhibitions. However, I never got to appreciate or understand the value
of much of the work; nor did I find it aesthetically appealing. Without
realising it at the time, what I was looking at was concept-driven photographic
art. Eventually I gave up trying to connect with the work of other LIPS members
and left.
Further down the line in my OCA
course work I started to understand, by virtue of research and project work,
more about the theory and practice of photographic art and to appreciate why there
was more to images (or portfolios of images) that I had been studying than
simple aesthetic appeal, which was often lacking. Understanding the background
to the work helped me to appreciate the images more, although many still left
me cold. I tried to connect my own wildlife photography to this work: I failed!
Wildlife images may be popular and appealing, but they seemed as different to
photographic art as chalk is to cheese.
Whilst I occasionally tried to
integrate my wildlife photography into the OCA course work at levels 1 and 2 I
put most of my effort into improving technique, investigating other genres in
which I was interested (in particular landscape photography, documentary and
photo-collage) and learning more about the history of and theory behind
movements in photographic art. However, the current course offered more freedom
to express myself and I decided to return to my main interest and carry out a
major project with a conceptual theme (“why we feed wild birds”) within the
genres of wildlife and documentary photography. A natural topic for the
critical essay was therefore to look at the relationship (if any) between wildlife
photography and photographic art: not only would this give me a better
understanding of how to produce a concept-driven portfolio but also it would
give me the opportunity to channel the frustration that I, as a wildlife
photographer, had felt about the lack of interest shown in this genre by the
art world, into a piece of writing.
The forum discussed the
relationship of wildlife photography with photographic art, other genres and
OCA course content. Although I found much of the discussion simplistic and superficial
(understandably, given the medium) and I disagreed with some of the comments I
was encouraged by the fact that some of the contributors were similarly
frustrated by the apparent dismissal of wildlife photography in the artistic
media and by being unable to express their interest in wildlife photography
through their course work. The forum also reinforced my view that the very
different attitude to the genre of landscape photography by the art
establishment must be the key to understanding why wildlife photography has
become isolated and this encouraged me to dig deeper into the reasons for the very
different treatment of these genres.
I had come into contact with the work of Daniel
Beltrá and other “wildlife photojournalists” through my regular visits to the
“Wildlife Photographer of the Year” and “Sony World Photography Awards”
exhibitions and felt that their work provided an important link between the
genres of wildlife photography, documentary and photojournalism. Whilst this
does not provide a link with the creative arts it does both highlight a
connection between wildlife photography and other genres and suggests a
potentially important role for the genre. I had originally planned to give
Daniel Beltrá’s work more prominence in the essay. However
his output, whilst important to the flow of my argument, is still fairly
limited so I decided to restrict myself to commenting in detail on a single
portfolio of his work.
The research to find a
connection between wildlife photography and photographic art sent me in some
fascinating directions. Whilst I ultimately failed to find a clear solution that
might integrate these areas I did establish (in my own mind, at least) why the
genre of landscape photography has become accepted by the photographic art
establishment, whilst the genre of wildlife photography has not. I am convinced
now that the differences between these two genres explain why wildlife
photography occupies its current niche.
The essay was started in March
2014, but the majority was written between May and early August, with breaks
for holidays. Because of my interest in the subject matter I found it easy to
write an initial draft. The main problem was in giving prominence to answering
the various questions and issues raised in the introduction. I decided to write
objectively, to provide a relatively impartial view (c.f. Project 5) of the
subject. Despite being in love with wildlife photography I found that it was
not too difficult to comprehend why there is so little interaction between this
genre and the photographic art establishment, why it differs from the genre of
landscape photography and hence why it occupies its current role. Of course I
may be mistaken, but the review aims to understand the genre, its status and
its interaction with other genres. It is not a polemic about the way wildlife
photography has been unfairly treated!
I have consciously avoided mentioning
specific wildlife photographers (other than the photojournalists), because I
felt that discussing their (figurative) work would not add anything to the
debate. Perhaps my essay is skewed a little towards understanding the role of
landscape photography in the development of photographic art, but I felt that
this was important in explaining why the differences between this genre and
that of wildlife photography help us to understand why the latter is largely
ignored by the art establishment.
Final Comments
When I started writing the essay
I felt hopeful that I could find a role for wildlife photography within the art
establishment. With the essay finished I now realise how hard it will be for
the genre to establish a foothold! However, I do have a much greater
understanding of why the worlds of the wildlife photographer and the art
establishment show so little overlap. I hope that my major project will explore
some of the areas of overlap.
I do believe that wildlife photography has an
important role to play, both in inspiring more people to interact with nature
and in bringing the attention of the world to the way that man is destroying
the natural world. The total destruction of our environment and the wildlife
that goes with it will leave little hope for the future of mankind. Wildlife
photography will disappear, but so will other photographic genres. Wildlife
photography may not be art, but it is important!
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