Elephant Reflections [Hardcover]

Stunning photography and concise, beguiling text communicate the "otherness" of African elephants to our awe and understanding in this gorgeous and absorbing oversize volume.

While the bulk of the book is photography and the pictures lead into the text at the back, readers really should read Peterson's words first, then go back and view the photographs in a new and richer light.

Although it's now widely known that elephants live in matriarchal family groups, that bulls are solitary, that they show affection and grief and communicate with each other over long distances, it was only 40 years ago that we didn't even know what elephants ate or how much.

Peterson covers elephant study from its beginnings in the 60s when Iain Douglas-Hamilton pioneered the field study of individuals, family groups and socialization, similar to the work Jane Goodall was doing with apes. Since then field researchers have viewed: bulls in musth (some very funny - and dangerous - stories about this condition, initially diagnosed as "an alarming malady"), the reunions of social groups, childcare networks, fear, sickness, and all the drama of family life, including the tragedy of poaching and slaughter.

Peterson describes the working of the elephants' bodies - their sensitive feet, their replaceable teeth, their formidable hide, their remarkable trunk. Reading Peterson's appreciation of the trunk, you will want one yourself. Its sense of smell is ten times more powerful than a bloodhound and it can pick up a coin off the ground. It's an arm, a snorkel, a suction tool for drinking or showering, a communication device, a digger, a scratcher, even a cane.

Peterson's eloquence is fueled with affection and enthusiasm and he concludes with the present day plight of elephants - poaching for ivory and meat.

Award-winning photographer Amman documents all these behaviors and more but you wouldn't know it without reading Peterson's text, as there are no captions. Amman's only explanation is a brief intro at the beginning and some pages of photographer's notes at the end.

Amman divides his pictures into categories focusing on aspects of elephant life and photographic beauty: Beginnings, Textures, Colors, Perspectives, Fragments, Portraits, Behaviors, Associations, Passages. The technical and artistic quality is superb, but even more they communicate affection, majesty and understanding.

Amman and Peterson (who also co-authored the acclaimed "Eating Apes") have produced a gorgeous, comprehensive homage to the strange and wonderful elephant.

Elephants are the first exotic animal of which kids have some knowledge. Every Noah's Ark set has a pair, and children are able to draw elephants almost as soon as they can draw any recognizable animal. We love Babar and we love Horton. But most westerners see real elephants only in zoos and circuses, where they are among the favorite attractions. In zoos, they don't do a whole lot besides stand around, but they are still a big draw. Why this should be so is not answered by the book _Elephant Reflections_ (University of California Press) with photographs by Karl Ammann and text by Dale Peterson. In fact, although there is much understanding promoted by Peterson's text, even he can't account for what he calls "the almost inexplicable sense of elephant otherness." This lovely, large-size book of 150 photographs of different aspects of the African elephant has enough dramatic, anatomical, or endearing pictures to increase anyone's appreciation for the mysteries of this largest of land animals.

The book is not a biology text, but more a coffee-table art book, and is entirely successful in this realm. The photos are not categorized by species or age, but by themes, like "Textures" or "Behaviors" or "Colors". Colors? Elephants are gray. But here they are not limited to gray. Ammann has taken advantage of different shades of sunlight to show an orange-shaded elephant, for instance, but usually the colors come from the exteriors of the elephants themselves, dusted or dribbled with gold or tan. The gorgeous section of textures show that this is a category to which a whole larger book might be devoted. Certainly here are the smooth hard tusks, or the strange toenails that look like half a goose egg. But the elephant has the most varied skin texture of any animal. There are broad sections of skin that look just like the bark of an old tree, or foreheads which are like lichen-covered stones, or ears with fancy dendriform patterns of veins beneath (patterns some researchers use to identify one individual from another). Some of the pictures of skin and wrinkle patterns are here in close-up without context of other body parts, and are stunning in their abstract complexity. Peterson explains that with all our experience of elephants since we were savanna hunters, using them for food, display, warfare, and labor, we ought to know them well, but by the middle of the twentieth century, we did not have scientific sureness of basic issues of how they sleep or migrate or socialize.

He reviews the results of the recent decades of intensive research. We have a good idea about gestures the elephants use for greeting, for instance, or their use of infrasound, signals too low for us to hear but which they send through the ground and sense through their footpads. We know much more about their matriarchal society and how females support each other in herds while males tend to be loners. Unfortunately, we also know how much damage ivory hunters have caused (though in a commentary from the photographer, Ammann explains that elephants are being killed now for meat, not for teeth). Here is a gorgeous collection of photographs to incite your wonder at this strangest and most inexplicably loveable of exotic beasts, and to make you care about what comes of them.

I love Elephants and was inspired to purchase this book after seeing African Elephants in the wild in East Africa. I wanted something to remember these incredible animals. In that sense, this book is good for Elephant aficionado. It includes hundreds of close-up photos of Elephants by Karl Ammann, as well as text by Dale Peterson. However, as a photo book, I had mixed feelings about Elephant Reflections.

I enjoyed looking through Ammann's photographs, and many of them are very good, but to be honest they're not as amazing as I had expected from a professional wildlife photographer. This might be because, having photograph African Elephants in the wild myself, I have very high standards. However, some of the pictures also look a bit blurry and don't really portray the vibrant colors of East Africa - they seem drab when compared to the real thing. I think this is in large part because Ammann still uses film rather than digital, the latter of which allows you to enrich colors. Of course, there are some excellent photos, particularly of Elephants fighting and adults mating, which you probably won't seen on your average safari. By contrast, I found the pictures Steve Bloom's Elephant a lot better, with colorful photos taken from creative angles.

Most of the book is taken up with pictures, not the text about Elephants, as it should be. Nonetheless, I was disappointed with Dale Peterson's text. First of all, there really isn't much, just a short intro and conclusion. It doesn't really explain what's happening in the pictures or anything about Elephant biology. Moreover, the introduction was useless mutterings on the philosophy of photography. The conclusion was much better and more substantive (at over 40 pages) and goes into Elephant biology. However, it often seemed as if Peterson had just cut and paste anecdotes from Cynthia Moss' Elephant Memories: Thirteen Years in the Life of an Elephant Family. If you haven't read much on Elephants already, it's a nice synthesis of the literature. Ammann himself has a brief essay at the end that was rather interesting about the bushmeat trade. Overall, I got the sense that Ammann is really interested in campaigning against the bushmeat trade, not Elephants.

I decided to give this book 3 stars, despite my disappointment, because there are some good photos. However, I can't say I strongly recommend it. Hopefully, if you haven't yet seen wild African Elephants, I hope Elephant Reflections inspires you to plan your safari and take your own photos.

For anybody who loves Elephants, I'd strongly recommend:

Elephant Memories: Thirteen Years in the Life of an Elephant Family

Elephant Destiny

Wildlife Wars: My Fight to Save Africa's Natural Treasures

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 11 reviews  4.6 out of 5 stars