Looking at animals through the lens
From the first trail camera to modern camera traps and augmented reality
I was reading the book Why Look at Animals? by John Berger to prepare a photography project about animals in zoos. Berger writes that through the lens of a camera, ‘All animals appear like fish seen through the plate glass of an aquarium.’ The reasons for this are both technical and ideological: Technically the devices used to obtain ever more arresting images — hidden cameras, telescopic lenses, flashlights, remote controls and so on — combine to produce pictures which carry with them numerous indications of their normal invisibility. The images exist thanks only to the existence of a technical clairvoyance.
This theory pushed me to study more in detail the history of the pioneer wildlife photographers that moved the first steps after naturalistic detailed illustrations of John James Audubon in the book Birds of America, 1827–1839, (a copy of which has sold at auction for millions of dollars).
Pioneer wildlife photographers
Searching the Europeana website, I found a book Wild wings; adventures of a camera-hunter among the larger wild birds of North America on sea and land by Job by Herbert Keightley Job, published in 1905. This book can be considered as poetry for nature. H. K. Job was an ornithologist in Connecticut and his passion for bird conservation and photography resulted in this book that includes an introductory letter by Theodore Roosevelt.
In 1906, George Shiras III published in National Geographic a series of black-and-white night photographs using flashlight of wildlife animals like deer, beavers and owls. The story of this congressman, lawyer and visual artist is described in the book Camera Hunter: George Shiras III and the Birth of Wildlife Photography by James H. McCorman.
These surprising photographs were taken with his trail camera/camera trap near a lake in Michigan to celebrate American wildlife and to protect these animals against extinction due to habitat loss and hunting activities. Together with Theodore Roosevelt, whose support for wildlife photographers we have found also in the previous book, and other scientists in Washington he contributed to the conservation movement.
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr., the 26th president of the United States from 1901 to 1909, is known as the conservationist president. As reported in The Conservation Legacy of Theodore Roosevelt blog of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Roosevelt established 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, four national game preserves, five national parks and 18 national monuments on over 230 million acres of public land and collaborated with several scientists and nature photographers for conservation.
Modern camera traps
Today camera traps are automatically triggered by a motion sensor and can reveal unexpected neighbours — also in our gardens — like those captured in Belgium’s Meise Botanic Garden.
Augmented reality
With Augmented Reality technology you can view or show your digital captures of animals wherever you want to enjoy an immersive experience or to create your portable museum or your personal photography exhibition. This is a video captured with my smartphone using an augmented reality application and the Meise Botanic image in a natural park near home in Italy.
