European Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2008
David Maitland
Short biography:
A childhood in the idyllic Scottish seaside town of St. Andrews nurtured David’s life-long love for nature. Photography has featured prominently throughout David’s life and after gaining his PhD in Zoology from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, he followed a successful academic career employing photography as a tool for both research and teaching. Nature photography has now taken centre stage and David became a full time Nature photographer in 2006. Specializing in conservation and biological issues, and employing a wide range of photographic techniques, especially macro, David is happy in any habitat. His most recent work has focussed on the tropical rainforests of the Americas, Africa and Indonesia. David’s investigation into the bush meat trade in West Africa took him to the Gabon in September 2007. A passion for Nature’s quirkiness and beauty draws his lens close into his subject for a frame-filling, intimate insight into his subject’s world. David’s work has won numerous international awards and has been published in many international magazines and books.
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| "Bush meat" |
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In preparation for the bush meat trade, monkeys are thrown onto open fires to burn off their fur prior to being sold “naked” at food markets throughout central West Africa. Despite being banned, the consumption of bush meat remains popular and presents a serious threat to both wildlife and Humans: The wildlife is threatened with extinction and Humans run the risk of contracting deadly diseases like Ebola and HIV. This is an endangered Gabon Black Colobus monkey, Colobus satanas anthracinus being prepared at a food market, Libreville, Gabon.
This is a vision of hell on earth. I was unprepared for the shocking reality of how the “naked” carcasses I had already seen for sale in the local markets had come to be this way. One minute an exquisite animal in the rainforest canopy, the next thrown onto an open fire to flay it for eating. As consumers it is all too easy to put out of our minds how meat in any country is prepared. I love these monkeys and it was a very difficult and emotional situation. I took the picture because it documents the interface between old ways of subsistence hunting and modern commercialization which, if not balanced, will lead to extinction.
Canon EOS 1Ds Mk II, Canon 2.8/16-35 mm auf 16 mm, ISO 100, Blende 8, 1/30 s
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