Shannon Greer
The thing about Africa is....when you start seeing baboons by the side of the road, gazelles sprinting in the distance, a warthog turning tail or two lions sleeping like the giant cats they are, it's both exciting and strangely unremarkable. It is as if you have always lived this way. Perhaps you did, in another existence.
Because this is how we lived for tens of thousands of years. Humans and animals. Just like that.
On a recent safari to Kenya's Maasai Mara, Shannon Greer studiously avoided the cliched images of African wildlife using black and white photography. He wasn't the first to elbow aside the calendar mentality: Peter Beard and Guillaume Bonn had brought their own sensibilities to the continent; Bonn, born in Madagascar by conveying both nature and the real life of African cities. Malick Sidibé's images captured the exuberance post-colonial Mali. South African David Goldblatt captured apartheid in unforgettable images like the one seen below. Contemporary photographers Nadia Ettwein, Yassmin Forte, Maheder Haileselassie, Carlos Idun-Tawiah and Léonard Pongo all have distinctive voices, conveying the truth, in case it was still in question, that Africa is much more than the Hemingway safari and the images propagated by Great White Hunters.
But sometimes we just want to look at animals, especially this week, when for a few days, it actually seemed as though we had a breather from the bad news - but hey, it's all relative. Shannon Greer brings freshness, joy, and personality to images of Kenya's wildlife, including the not-so-wild: a Maasai moran (young warrior), and the Maasai's famed cattle.
David Goldblatt, 1985, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Talking to the Animals: Shannon Greer
Brian Goes Wild Playlist
Kumakudo ::: The Shona People, Zimbabwe
Casamance Nights ::: Baaba Maal
Binta Madialo ::: Francis Bebey
Giraffe Song ::: Karamoja, Uganda
African Marketplace ::: Abdullah Ibrahim
Sousoume’ Tamachek ::: Mdou Moktar
Malombo ::: Philip Table & Malombo
Salutation Akazehe’ ::: Deux Jeunes Filles en Burundi
Africa Remembers ::: Youssou N’dour
The Wildebeest ::: Animals of Africa