The Trouble With Putting “E” Before “O” In The Alphabet Of Importance.
We had a visitor here on Watchdog the last few days. The woman who runs Kevin Richardson’s social media sites (the Lion Whisperer Facebook page, and Lion Whisperer Instagram account) decided to come over and “call us out” in a comment on our latest note about Richardson, and those defending him. It’s not the first time she’s attempted to belittle, and discredit Watchdog, or others (notably Artemis Grey, who we’ve seen her trash-talking on various pages and groups where Ms. Grey has been blocked and cannot defend herself) who do not simply go along with Richardson and his ilk. After an exchange of comments, and accusing us of using David Yarrow’s photographs without his permission (it wasn’t Yarrow’s photo) among other things, Richardson’s page manager deleted her comments from our note. Apparently, however, she was so offended by us and the (wrong) belief that we’d used the artwork of a KR supporter that she felt a little name-dropping over on the Lion Whisperer pages would be appropriate.
We presume that her posts were meant as a snub, but unfortunately, they reveal far more of the truth behind Richardson and his empire, as well as the ignorance and lack of understanding of Richardson supporters, than anything else.
Through a series of “Guess the Photographer” posts KR’s page manager has boasted that:
“Over the years, we have had the distinct honour of working with some of the world's most talented photographers. The incredible array of photos that we have of our animals would make the finest art galleries green with envy.”
Just on the face of this post, the aroma of “We’re important, and you are not” is so strong it could make your eyes water. Add a few curse words in there, and it could be Eduardo Serio going on about how many super famous friends he has, and how his haters are just jealous of those connections.
The thing is, the world’s most talented photographers are just that: photographers. They’re celebrities, they aren’t conservationists. E before O in the alphabet of importance. It’s all about who you are, not what you do. And getting photographs of captive wild animals that the finest art galleries would be envious has nothing to do with conserving wild animals, in wild habitats. Watchdog doesn’t argue that the photographers named over on the Lion Whisperer’s page are extremely talented. But to some extent, they’re also either ignorant, they’ve been mislead by Richardson, or they’re intentionally participating in engagements they understand don’t actually have anything to do with the conservation of wild lions. And in all of these cases, it’s Kevin Richardson’s–the “world renown animal behavioralist Lion Whisperer’s–job to “take the high road” and teach the photographers about conservation, rather than joining them in exploiting his animals.
And yes, sanctuaries need to raise money to support themselves. This is something Richardson does quite handily by charging “volunteers” thousands of dollars per week for the privilege of “volunteering” to care for all his animals. What sanctuaries do not need to do, is engage in capitalist ventures, and endorsements gained through the exploitation of the animals they’re supposed to be caring for.
Because we’re sure that Richardson’s page manager will be trolling, even if she doesn’t have the fortitude to comment again, we’re going to link directly to the websites of the photographers, but not use their photos here. Also, because we’re sure that we’ll be accused of not being brave enough to tag the artists themselves, let’s address that point. These photographers are artists. They’ve spent their lives honing and working on their art, and we respect that. We will not be tagging the photographers directly simply because this is not their fight, this is not their area of expertise, and therefore we do not wish to cause them undue ill-will, even if they knew they were exploiting animals. At the end of the day, avoiding this exploitation was Richardson’s job, not that of the artists.
Let’s start with David Yarrow.
https://davidyarrow.photography
Yes, we know he’s world famous, we know he’s connected to Tusk Trust Charity which is supported by the Crown, etc. but that doesn’t mean he’s above reproach, and the members of Watchdog wouldn’t have any trouble sitting down with Yarrow himself, or any member of the Royal family, for that matter, and discussing the numerous issues with Yarrow’s actions of late. We first called Yarrow out when one of his prestigious photos of a Richardson lion was donated to a gallery known to support Black Jaguar White Tiger. That gallery immediately auctioned the piece of art off for tens of thousands of dollars, and directly handed the money to Eduardo Serio, of Black Jaguar White Tiger. Yarrow knew this. He was there. We’ve got photos of him shaking Serio’s hand, and talking about what a wonderful evening it was. Because, you know, putting tens of thousands of dollars into the pocket of an already wealthy animal abuser makes for a great evening. KR supporters immediately began defending Yarrow claiming that he didn’t know who Serio was, or what the gallery was going to do with the photograph he donated. Fine. To be painfully fair, Watchdog will stipulate that Yarrow didn’t know anything, and had no idea who Eduardo Serio was (despite that the gallery in question hosts multiple artists who adore BJWT, and regularly supports BJWT, and also has Yarrow’s work hanging) Fast forward to now, and here’s Yarrow photographing Richardson’s lions, using a young model who has visited BJWT and openly loves Serio, for the purpose of creating an ad campaign for luxury watches, to be exhibited in an art show, which would have been hosted by the *same* gallery that donated to money to BJWT before, with a new photo donated to that gallery, with the intent to auction that photo off, and donate the money to an animal nonprofit. In fact, the *only* reason this ad campaign was not revealed at a posh party, and the donated photos auctioned off, is because one of Richardson’s lions happened to kill someone right before it was scheduled, so the event was cancelled.
You don’t get to use the “ignorant card” more than once. Yarrow happily uses captive wild animals as photo props (including wolves walking down bars in pubs, and lovely nude women with cheetahs) for ad campaigns and other commercial endeavors, including simple art. Being hired by a watch company to photograph an ad, is not conservation. Neither is using captive wild animals in that ad. Using captive wild animals for a book that’s supposedly showcases dwindling wild animals is also not conservation. It’s just getting paid to take photos of captive wild animals.
In the same vein, let’s move on to Adrian Steirn.
https://www.adriansteirn.com/index
Now, Mr. Steirn has taken some utterly breathtaking photos, and documented plenty of genuine conservation efforts (look up his work with rescued pangolins) but he’s also fallen into the “Lion Whisper awe” trap. Most notably, it was Steirn who shot one of the best camouflaged-while-also-blatantly-obvious commercials for a car ever made. Mercedes Benz, being the successful capitalist company they are, decided to unveil their G-Class vehicle by having it filmed with lions climbing all over it. This is a car commercial. Full stop. The insidiousness of it, though, is in the fact that the car commercial part is center stage, but background only. Instead, Mercedes Benz peddled their new G-Class vehicle as being “the protagonist of a project like never before. Brave, brilliant and dangerous, all in one.” The challenge was (using the car being advertised) to take a photo (in only 48hrs) “that would illustrate the lions’ fight to survive.”
You can watch the whole campaign here. (note the discussion of the lions’ habituation to humans, which Watchdog has mentioned repeatedly, and cited as a huge issue, and which directly influenced the events of the recent fatal mauling).
http://mercedesblog.com/the-mercedes-benz-g-class-as-wild-as-the-lions/
The most painful catch? The entire thing involved captive lions being carted into the territory of wild lions, and photographed by someone who was being filmed while photographing them. Steirn’s photos were used to “illustrate the lions’ fight to survive.” while the film of Steirn getting that photo was used to sell a car. So you’ve got two film crews encroaching in the meager territory of wild lions (the Eastern Pride, as it’s locally called) in order to photograph captive lions being forced to perform, in order to highlight the fact that wild lions are dying. The irony of it all is staggering, and brings to mind a quote from the beloved fantasy book, The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle.
“She can only disguise, and only for those eager to believe whatever comes easiest. She cannot turn cream into butter, but she can make a lion look like a manticore to eyes that want to see a manticore. Just like she put a false horn on a real unicorn so they can see the unicorn.”
You can easily disguise the truth for people who want to see something other than the truth, but those same people then need the truth to be disguised as itself in order for them to see it for what it is. There’s no profit in photographing wild lions, because you can’t control them, you can’t structure anything, you can’t cram it into 48hrs, and you surely can’t haul a brand new vehicle around to showcase, while having a full second film crew filming you and that vehicle. So instead, they took two captive lions, put one in a cage, and the other loose, in the middle of wild lion territory, took a photo, and then marketed it as being for the conservation of the wild lions they displaced while capturing the photo. And remember, this is all just a glorified car commercial.
Also remember that Richardson repeatedly drives his captive lions into the established territory of the Eastern Pride which lives on the DGR just so he can “walk” with his lions, and use them in commercial endeavors like watch ads, and car commercials. Please see the below stills taken from the Lion Whisperer video “Loading the Lions” (start watching at 3.24 minutes for the brief wild lion sighting) They drive directly by wild lions in order to then turn captive lions loose into the territory of those wild lions. It’s beyond unconscionable that Richardson is intentionally stressing, and harming existing wild lions, and getting applauded for doing so.
Moving on to Jeroen Hofman.
https://www.jeroenhofman.nl/work/?pid=89
Again, another amazing photographer. But also again, a photographer who photographed Richardson and his lions for an ad campaign (are you seeing a theme here?) Hofman’s photos of Richardson prowling through the grasslands of South Africa, impeccably dressed in a Van Gils suit, alongside a male lion have practically become ubiquitous. Consider that. A guy selling a suit–selling a product–using the appealing masculinity of a lion to do it has become the embodiment of a “well dressed man on the prowl.” You can’t even argue that this has anything at all to do with conservation. It’s literally just using captive wild animals to sell merchandise. And, of course, Richardson was paid for it. Also, again, this took place in the territory of the wild Eastern Pride who’s just trying to survive.
Finally, we come to Gary Lankford.
http://www.lankfordfilms.com/photography
Though he has an entire film company under him, Lankford is, perhaps, the least “commercial” photographer so recently cited over on the Lion Whisperer’s page, inasmuch as we haven’t found any ad campaigns shot by him using captive wild animals (though he avidly photographs rodeos, which are renown for being abusive to the animals involved, so that’s a whole other issue) Instead, Lankford states that he hopes to help support Richardson’s efforts to “save African lions and their habitats.” (link to full quote below)
http://www.photographercentral.com/photographer/23514985618381/gary-lankford-austin-texas
It’s unclear whether Lankford realizes that the photos he took of Richardson’s captive lions (and which he’s using to further his own career) were actually taken while those lions encroached on the habitat of existing wild lions, habitat for while lions which he says he wants to protect through his support of KR, the very person encroaching on that habitat which is so precious to the very remaining wild lions.
Yes, all of these photographers are incredibly talented artists. They’re celebrities in the art world, but they aren’t conservationists on the ground. Lion Whisperer proponents often say to those of us who speak out in opposition of Richardson
“What do you do? It doesn’t matter what you say, only what you do!”
Well we can emphatically tell you what we don’t do. We don’t sell out captive wild animals in ad campaigns for commercial goods. We don’t haul captive wild animals into the territory of tenuously surviving fully wild animals for the purpose of creating ad campaigns for commercial goods. And we don’t work with photographers who do those things.
Because, ethics. They aren’t up for debate. And in our alphabet, Conservation comes before Celebrity.