Almost one month into my time in Namibia now and I am glad to say I have been finding a concrete project to focus on. I am following a maxim I was told during my service in the Marine Corps: Look for straight lines in nature; they are uncommon and typically a sign of human infrastructure.
I am using this guidance to highlight the lasting impact humankind has on the natural environment. The continent of Africa is often portrayed, through global travel magazines to tourists at least, as a pristine place of wild beauty, untouched by mankind. It's an ironic notion, especially considering that Homo sapiens speciated on this continent. What we think of as typical wildlife and nature photography excludes all man-made infrastructure despite the fact that many of the photographs taken were done so on game reserves and wildlife preserves with luxury lodges worthy of American and European elite.
I want to refute this notion and angle my camera to include in the frame instances of human presence and artifact. Most of what I have done so far has been black and white as I feel this accentuates the straight anthropogenic geometries that stand out from nature. By highlighting this I hope to convey the constant tension felt with human-wildlife interactions, predator-livestock conflicts, rampant poaching, and growing populations with ensuing construction.
Recently a good friend of mine attended a wildlife conference here in Windhoek. It was an internationally attended conference. I found it interesting when she told me how similar so many of these conflicts are regardless of the location in the world. Namibia is a large country, but with a population of only 2 million. It has the lowest population density of any country in Africa, yet it shares all of the challenges of any other country, and more.
