STALKING BIG GAME
WITH A CAMERA
IN EQUATORIAL AFRICA

WITH A MONOGRAPH ON THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT

BY
MARIUS MAXWELL

WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD: LONDON
1925

“While primary a book of the author’s adventures photographing African big game, there are a few instances of hunting rhino and elephant... . Maxwell describes his battery of cameras and equipment much the way a shikari would describe his rifles. The author is quick to point out that he keeps a .600 bore handy. Needless to say the, the photographic images are striking.” (Czech, Bibliography of African Big Game Hunting Books)

"Mr. Maxwell uses his camera as other stalkers use the rifle. This volume is the record of his expeditions through British East Africa in search of opportunities to photograph hippopotamus, buffalo, giraffe, rhinoceros, and beyond all else, elephants, for his chief delight was to track that great beast through forest, bush and swamp, and snap him unawares. The results are remarkable, and form the finest gallery of big game portraits ever made..."

"[It] has been my desire," Maxwell states in his introduction, "to secure photographic records of incidents in big game hunting, incidents such as are found in the writings of well-known hunters, and to illustrate these experiences by actual photographs wherever and whenever fortune has turned my way, and given me opportunities to obtain an accurate shot with the camera instead of the rifle." Maxwell pays his respects to C. G. Schillings and A. Radclyffe Dugmore, pioneers in the field of big game photography. But while these gentlemen attempted to capture game animals in their natural setting, neither was able to capture them with enough detail to satisfy the naturalists. In order to accomplish this Maxwell tried to use a telephoto lens as little as possible and relied primarily on an ordinary lens with a focal length of six to ten inches, a habit which necessitated close proximity to the animals in order to obtain the best shot. The results are stunning. Many of the photos depict animals staring into the camera with tense suspicion, in graceful motion as they flee, or actually charging the camera (and being dropped by bullets when necessary). Almost all these photos are quite artfully composed, the difficulty of which, under the circumstances, speaks highly of Maxwell's sense of aesthetics and skill as a photographer.

CONTENTS

A CAMERA HUNTSMAN'S EQUIPMENT
FIRST VISIT TO BRITISH EAST AFRICA
WITH CAMERA AFTER ELEPHANTS IN BUSH-COUNTRY
CAMERA SPORT WITH ELEPHANTS ON THE AMALA AND MOGOR RIVER
THE SENSES OF THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT
CAMERA INCIDENTS WITH THE MASAI GIRAFFE
CAMERA SPORT WITH BUFFALO AND RHINOCEROS
FURTHER EXPERIENCES WITH RHINOCEROS BICORNIS
CAMERA SPORT WITH THE HIPPOPOTAMUS
ON SAFARI TO THE NORTHERN FRONTIER DISTRICT
WILD ELEPHANTS AND THE CAMERA AT ABBAS WEN
WITH CAMERA AFTER ELEPHANTS IN THE LORIAN SWAMP

32 x 25 cm. xxiv + 206 pp. Illustrated with many b/w photo plates some folding.

Good condition. Cloth worn on the edges, corners of the boards bumped. Front free endpaper removed. Some light foxing to the edges and margins. Bottom edge of a few pages bumped causing creasing and a short (3mm) tear. 

Heavy, about 2.8 kg packed.