Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
shift away from indulgent slaughter to enlightened conservation. Yet, as I have shown,
the photographic hunting that emerged around the turn of the twentieth century
was far from exempt from cruelty or killing. For many of its early practitioners, the
practice of 'camera hunting' was not always distinguishable from ordinary hunting.
Organised photographic hunting in fact marks a shift in the terms of domination,
away from a celebration of brute force over the natural world, to a more subtle
though no less powerful mastery of nature through colonial management. This shift
was inescapably linked to the broader colonial transformation of Africa itself, from
an era of exploration and conquest to one of settlement and administration
(Anderson and Grove 1987).
Though the British were the chief architects of 'camera hunting', it was by no
means restricted to them. Akeley, for example, used the concept extensively during
his visits to East Africa (in 1905, 1909 and 1921) for the American Museum of
Natural History and in his associated hunting exploits with Theodore Roosevelt in
East Africa (Haraway 1992:26-58). Indeed, 'camera hunting' became increasingly
common within the work of both European and American naturalists and film-
makers in the first half of the twentieth century. Hunting with the camera should
therefore be seen not solely as part of British colonial discourse, but as implicated in
broader movements to create and preserve a vision of African nature as a timeless
domain for white European and American 'men'.
Acknowledgements
I should like to thank participants at the 'Animals, Agency and Human Geography'
session of the Annual Conference of the Royal Geographical Society (with the
Institute of British Geographers) in Exeter in January 1997 for their critical
feedback. Participants in the postgraduate seminar at the School of Geography,
University of Oxford, in 1998 were also generous in their comments on an earlier
version. I also wish to thank David Bolton of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum,
Exeter; Joanna Scadden of the Royal Geographical Society Picture Library; Kay
Anderson; Don Chapman; Gordon Clark; Patricia Daley; Felix Driver; Kitty
Hauser; Ben Page; and Dominic Power. Finally, most importantly, I should like to
thank Chris Philo and Chris Wilbert for their invaluable editorial suggestions and
patience.
Notes
1
These thoughts were uppermost in my mind when, while participating in a conference
session on 'Animals, Agency and Human Geography' at the University of Exeter, I
came across this particular giraffe. Much of the substance of this essay is derived from
a larger study of photography and British imperialism (Ryan 1997).
2
In 1906 Peel set up an 'Exhibition of Big-Game Trophies and Museum of Natural
History and Anthropology' in Oxford, to house his collections. When this closed in
1919, Oxford City Council refused the collection and the Royal Albert Memorial
