The Nature of Photography
Ever since its invention and rapid popularization, photography has shaped the way we view—and care for—the natural world
Ever since its invention and rapid popularization, photography has shaped the way we view — and care for — the natural world. Plus: what you can do to help conserve nature as you photograph
ASWAN WASHING ITSELF IN A LAKE, A SNAIL atop a mushroom, even a raccoon in a garbage bin — nature photography allows us to wonder at the world around us, and photographers bring that world right into our homes.
From the depths of Antarctica to the highest peaks of the Andes, nature photographers have taken us with them to witness natural moments that we would never otherwise see. Their photographs are a testament to the past 150 years of unprecedented natural change.
Some of the earliest photographs ever taken are nature photographs — in a way. They show things like streetscapes lined with trees, big monuments and battlefields, but nature is there nevertheless. The earliest of these images were taken more as a test of what would happen when the shutter was pressed than as art, and they show the nearest well-lit scene available: the view outside the window.
Photography rapidly became popular, and as photo studios that did primarily portraiture proliferated, photographers began taking their cameras outdoors. Photographs
that deliberately portrayed natural scenes quickly became popular as the technology developed. But getting actual live creatures into the images was an issue, since capturing a single image with an early camera took around 20 minutes. John Dillwyn Lewelyn, a Welsh botanist and one of the first nature photographers, used taxidermied animals in his “natural” scenes throughout the 1850s.
Throughout the late 19th century and into the 20th, photographers strove to give ordinary people extraordinary access to previously inaccessible natural places well off the beaten path. In North America, such photographs also helped fuel a passion for nature that led to the formation of the U.S. National Park Service and the growth of nature tourism in Canada. Photographers played an instrumental part in shaping what people knew about nature in North America and how it was perceived.
As early as the 1860s, photographic “view books” showcasing Canada’s abundant natural beauty instructed rail travellers from across the English-speaking world on what nature they would see as they traversed the country. “Not only were there well-heeled Canadians looking to explore their own backyard,” writes historian Elizabeth Anne Cavaliere, “but also an imperial market of British tourists looking for adventure in the colonies and Americans seeking wilderness and nature’s beauty north of their border with Canada.”
While the photographers who shot Canada for the Canadian Pacific Railway are no longer well known, their early work focused on “views” inspired others whose works still have a broad audience — such as Ansel Adams. In the late 1920s, Adams first visited and photographed the Canadian Rockies. His vision of them as “another world — breathtaking and difficult,” as he recalled in his autobiography, helped to shape the public perception of that vast landscape.
These and other examples of early landscape photography helped make the case for the preservation of nature and wildlife. The images of deer shot at night with the aid of a flashlight by George Shiras III, an American congressman and amateur photographer, became the first images of wildlife published by National Geographic, in 1906. Shooting wild animals with a camera rather than a gun became the norm for many outdoorspeople.
Beginning in the 1960s, nature photography took on a new overt purpose: conservation. “If people had not been alerted to the environmental crisis earlier, they certainly were shaken by the images that were shown in their living rooms of oiled seabirds, poisoned fish and forests destroyed by acid rain,” write historians Janne Seppänen and Esa Väliverronen. At the same time, nature photography showing the beauty of flourishing plants and animals provided people with a concrete incentive to fight back in the name of nature.
Although the term “conservation photography” has been around only since the early 2000s, the idea of photographing nature as a way to present and plead its case has been around since the work of Adams and his colleagues, who used their images to advocate for the creation of national parks.
This story is still one of technological change and of social change: the world of images has changed a lot since the 1960s and 1970s. Today, nearly everybody has a camera with them all the time. For wildlife, this has had some big impacts, many of which go against the principles of conservation photography. Too many people, armed with a camera phone, take the same approach to capturing images of wildlife as George Shiras III: hunting, but with a camera instead of a gun. Photography, too, has the potential to kill animals, whether by causing them stress that affects their long-term survival or, as in the case of the grizzly bears of Banff National Park, habituating them to the presence of humans.
Nature photography has raised the profile of Canada’s wildernesses and its wildlife. But if approached carelessly, it harms the very sites it seeks to capture. Coexisting with nature is a delicate balance at the best of times, and forcing an encounter with a wild animal or damaging a natural site for a photograph can cause untold harm.
Today, before heading out into the field, smart wildlife photographers have the resources at their fingertips online, from associations like the International League of Conservation Photographers, to learn more about how to responsibly photograph wildlife. Because the potential for harm if you’re careless doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go, so long as you learn how to be careful. Take your camera and join this year’s photography contest winners in going out to find the best Canada has to offer.1