The photographers changing the way we see animals

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The photographers changing the way we see animals - BBC

Popular culture can create stereotypes of ‘cuddly’ pandas or ‘evil’ snakes – but some photographers are setting out to change how we see wildlife, writes Graeme Green.


Savage and snarling, the giant gorilla of the King Kong films is a fearsome monster that needs to be appeased with a human sacrifice. Size aside, it’s a strange depiction of an animal that, as anyone who’s stood near a gorilla knows, exudes a sense of peace and gentleness. When I photographed gorillas in Uganda, I saw tumbling infants irritating their patient dad, as the family quietly chewed leaves. These are not animals that rampage violently through forests, a deadly threat to anything in their way.

Film and literature exert a strong influence on how people think of animals, with fictional versions often far removed from reality. Sharks aren’t vengeful killers. Snakes aren’t ‘evil’. And the majority of pandas, no matter what the films say, are not masters of Kung Fu. “We’ve turned pandas into goofy, cartoonish characters,” says National Geographic photojournalist Ami Vitale, who photographed the bears over three years in China’s Sichuan province. “We’re used to seeing them as stuffed toys and in story books, but that’s not actually how they are at all. It’s a creature that’s very elusive, quiet and solitary.”
 
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