David Paynter

Originally conceived as a coffee-table book, wildlife photographer David Paynter wanted to tell the story of an elephant’s life — but from the elephant’s point of view. He has created something far more fascinating than a mere collection of excellent photographs in this written and pictorial biography of the young African bull, Tembo Ndhlovu.

“Despite their great lumbering presence, [elephants] are known to display a whole range of ‘human-like’ virtues.

“Both the good and the bad ... but particularly the good.

“Elephants are renowned for being kind to their young and should an individual [or the herd] be threatened or in trouble, they will unite in a bid to rescue or protect.”

The memory diaries of Tembo are delicately written and although they are, naturally, fantasy, Paynter backs up every event in the adolescent’s life with interesting fact boxes: like all young males, Tembo is expelled from the maternal herd.

But he manages to join a group under an old bull, who teaches him the survival skills he needs.

We view the milestones through his eyes — from fighting, the extraordinary public mating and birthing processes, the play and the elaborate and jubilant greeting rituals, to what Paynter calls Elephants in Ecstasy, enjoying exuberant mud and dust baths.

“Anthropomorphism, in general, is a topic of heated debate: do wild animals really have emotions we can equate to directly,” Paynter asks at the beginning of his work.

He goes on to answer his own question with a wealth of emotionally revealing photographs, and this fascinatingly poignant factual ‘memoir’… (mer)