They Know … We Know!
By Oliver Klink
My first visit to Africa was in 1986. The purpose of the trip was to share and exchange idea with university students in Abidjan (the capital of Ivory Coast), understand their living conditions, and listen to their views of the future. Ivory Coast was booming, their president Hufuet Buani was one of the richest men on earth, the country was one of the largest consumers of champagne in the world. Bargaining power could get you any luxury goods, handbags, sunglasses, jewelry, and even ivory. I was very naïve and traded my Swiss watch for a carved ivory statuette. The craftsmanship was amazing; the story told mesmerizing; I basically fell in love with the beauty of the masterpiece. What I didn’t know at that point was where the material came from. Beauty blinded me from the harsh reality that animals’ lives could have been taken.
Twenty years later, I returned to Africa to witness the beauty of wildlife. I took over 20,000 images of lions, zebras, giraffes, the great migration, elephants, and more. I was “gunning” to get the best shot in the best light, the actions, sometimes gruesome, which depict the harsh reality of the circle of life in Africa. But the image that stood out was a baby elephant (about 2 months old), which was led towards my jeep under his mom’s watchful eye. Once again, I was blinded by the beauty of a masterpiece, but this time live animals were at the center stage.
For my latest project, “Portrait of an Elephant”, my goal is to nurture beauty to get the viewer to a deeper understanding of their life, their whereabouts, their struggles. I was very fortunate to witness the birth of an elephant in the wild. To my big surprise the entire herd left the pregnant mom behind at the mercy of the predators. She fought for the life of her young, chasing away hyenas; jackals, eagles and she prevailed (for the visual story, check out the aurasma video tagged to “Shadow Me!”). That memorable episode wasn’t about beauty it was truly about the deeper understanding of elephant lives.
The herd knew that the newborn would survive. I knew that I had gotten a masterpiece with the baby elephant in 2006. So what about the ivory statuette in 1986? Deep inside I felt that it was too good of a deal to get a masterpiece carved ivory. So I knew that something was odd … and the good news the material was plaster!
Hear more from Oliver about his love of Elephants at the Wildlife Beyond Borders Reception on April 16th at Keeble and Shuchat Gallery, 290 California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94306, from 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Register at this link for the 1:00 PM VIP Event and Reception.