Africa's Animal Kingdom��a Visual Celebration. - book review

Author: Kit Coppard Publisher: PRC Publishing Ltd [c] 2001, 512 pages US $24.95 / CD $35.95

Kit Coppard is a widely-published writer whose current project is a television series based on his ecological studies.

This book cannot be thought of as a typical "how to" photographic book--the settings are too exotic and the close-ups of the animals too dangerous for most of us. Rather, by allowing us to see these beautiful images of the animals of Africa, not in zoos but in their natural conditions, we can better appreciate the power of the animals and the fragility of their environments--civil unrest, over-farming, poaching and drought pose increasing dangers. Kit Coppard's book is a powerful plea for awareness.

It is divided up into Part One--The African Environment (The Changing Landscape, Climate, Natural Vegetation, the Great National Parks and Reserves) and Part Two--Wildlife Close-up (Hoofed Animals, Elephants, Carnivores, Primates, Reptiles, Birds). There is an excellent index.

It would be impossible to list all of the powerful photographs. But a good example is the portrait of a crocodile (page 75). I call it a "portrait" because, as with skilled human-portrait photography, it seems as though the personality of the individual animal is captured--indeed, in the rather grim moment of swallowing its prey. The chimpanzee (page 112) with its arms crossed and gazing thoughtfully out of the frame, seems to share with us the emotions of relaxed curiosity. The giraffe (page 170) seems to be enjoying its feast on the high leaves only its long neck could reach. The various family group photographs--such as that of the lioness washing her cub (page 158-59)--help, as it were, "to make the whole world kin."

I don't want to suggest that the photographs "humanize" the animals--far from it. But in their finely observed detail and their lack of zoo-like "posing" they do consistently lead us into the apparent experiences of these fellow-living creatures. Consequently, we feel our kinship with them, and concern for the fragility of their environment and the extinction that seems to face so many of the species.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Photographic Society of America, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group