Photographing Vultures

For this week's blog, I came across a video on National Geographic's website about photographer Charlie Hamilton James who has recently been working to photograph vultures, particularly in Africa.  Vultures may seem like an odd and maybe disgusting animal to photograph, but James has a broader goal in this photography mission.  Besides finding vultures extremely fascinating, he also wants to shed light on the real threats surrounding this animal population.

As James explains, vultures are the fastest declining bird population on Earth right now, facing extinction in as near as five to ten years.  The greatest threat to vultures currently is in Africa where vultures are harvested by poisoning for their brains and other parts because of their perceived power in witch doctoring.  While we often think of the likes of lions and hyenas as the top-of-the-food-chain meat eaters, James says that vultures actually consume more meat than all of these mammals combined.  Without vultures, James points out that the whole African ecosystem would be drastically changed.

To tell the whole story of these vultures, James not only gets incredible images of these birds in the wild, whether they be feasting on the carcass of a wildebeest or staring down a hungry dog for the leftovers; he also uses his images to tell the other side of the story, photographing the harvesting and sale of these birds' brains and other parts.  In the end, James hopes to bring awareness of this crisis to the world in the hopes that these gross but also fascinating creatures will remain.

Link to National Geographic video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbLE1-nOlSs
Link to Charlie Hamilton James' website:
 http://charliehamiltonjames.com/vultures/lrmgvfgpig0l2a6h8z9mw1z6snltr9