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Introduction to "Eye to Eye"
by Frans Lanting
Many years ago, when I was growing up in Holland along the shores of the North Sea, I read a book that made a deep impression on me. Nils Holgersson’s Miraculous Journey, by Selma Lagerloff, tells the story of a Swedish boy who shrinks to gnome size, climbs on the back of a barnyard goose, and joins a flock of wild geese traveling north. For a full year Nils lives among the geese and other wild animals; he meets Eagle, Raven, Bear, and learns to see the world through their eyes. At long last he is returned to his father’s farm and regains his former size, but with that transformation Nils loses his standing among the animals. The geese, suddenly afraid of their companion, take off in a rush.
The idea of a human being crossing the borders of the animal world to live among wild creatures has occurred among people of all places and all times. But in some cultures the boundaries between man and animal were not as sharply defined as they seem to us. Communities of hunter-gatherers in particular, like the San of the Kalahari or the Mbuti of the Congo basin have no trouble with perceiving a human spirit inside animal beings or with recognizing an animal identity inside themselves. The separation between humans and other creatures became more pronounced in agricultural societies, although people were still surrounded by animals of their own choice like cattle and domestic fowl. Since the Industrial Revolution, however, we have become isolated increasingly from the rest of creation and today only a small fraction of the population of developed countries has any contact with wild animals anymore. Yet the interest in wildlife is widespread and actually seems to increase as our society becomes more urbanized.
To fill this need for a connection with animals in the wild, a curious breed of specialists has sprung up. Wildlife photographers and filmers are returning to nature for professional reasons; in a way they’re Nils Holgerssons by trade. They are go-betweens who communicate to human society about the animal kingdom. Without them, few people would know what a whale, a lion or a panda looks like, let alone how they live.
The conditions under which wildlife camera men work are usually quite unlike Nils’ intimacy with the wild geese. Long telephoto lenses, remotely controlled cameras and other ingenious contraptions plus infinite patience are required to overcome the distance most wild animals keep from us. There are however some places where things are simpler, where the presence of Homo sapiens does not trigger immediate fright or flight. In the course of my wanderings around the globe I have been privileged to spend time in a few such areas, and I think back to those occasions with great fondness. Living with albatrosses on a small island in the Pacific, roaming with a troop of lemurs through a forest in Madagascar, camping out among giant tortoises in the Galapagos --those were times when I shrank in size and learned to see the world through other eyes.
I have spent much of the past decade in the company of wild animals trying to understand their ways. My photography is a way of sharing their lives and mine with people around the world. I have become, like the boy in the story, a messenger between the world of nature and the millions of people who will never crouch before an elephant or live with lions in the African night. In a way, my eyes are the eyes of the world. What they see is not just beauty. The perfection I seek in my photographic compositions is just a means to show the strength and dignity of animals in nature.
Shortly before the geese leave him for good, their leader, a wise old female, takes Nils aside and asks him to communicate the needs of wild creatures to his fellow humans. “Now that you’ve come to know us,“ she says, “perhaps you’ll agree we have rights too. We were here long before you; the woods, the swamps, the sea--they’re ours by inheritance.”
While no animal has even spoken to me in such terms, I think this message has come through nonetheless. We’re newcomers on the planet and we owe some respect and space to those who were here before us.
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