Several years ago, my aunt introduced me to the books of Bradley Trevor
Greive, who selects from among thousands the most striking
black-and-white photos, most featuring animals in very cute, cuddly or
comical poses, to accompany his pithy life lessons in gift books like The Blue Day Book and I’m Sorry… My Bad. I thought of those books, of which I have about a dozen, when I happened upon Our Peaceable Kingdom: The Photographs of John Drysdale
in a bookshop a couple of years ago. The Salem, Massachusetts store was
an unusual spectacle, piled high with books in all directions, and I
wanted to find something a bit eccentric to reflect where I had found
it. This book fit the bill perfectly.
Of course, the collection
differs from one of Greive’s books in several significant ways. For one
thing, while the number of pages is comparable to many of Greive’s
volumes, the size of this hardcover is much larger. Moreover, all of the
photographs are from a single artist, and aside from brief captions,
there is no text driving the full-page photographs. Margaret Regan, who
selected the photographs for this compilation, writes an introduction,
and the book concludes with a biographical note on Drysdale, but the
most interesting writing comes just after the final photograph with a
collection of notes pertaining to the circumstances under which several
of the pictures were taken.
The main similarity lies in the tone
of the photos, which mostly feature children with animals or animals of
different species peaceably interacting. The effect is sometimes funny,
sometimes sweet, almost unfailingly charming. Underneath each
black-and-white photo is printed a simple caption and the year. Some of
the captions are amusing, like the “Just Looking” that accompanies a fox
sitting in a field amongst seven fuzzy ducklings. However, most are
fairly matter-of-fact. The humor is in the odd juxtapositions in the
photos themselves.
Chimpanzees are among the most represented
creatures in the book, turning up in 12 photographs, including a series
of four depicting a chimp fascinated by a chick. My favorite chimpanzee
photo is probably the one that opens the book. In it, a little girl and a
chimp share a swing; she takes a traditional position, while her furry
companion stands facing her, clinging to the bars connecting the seat to
the top of the swing set. While the child appears content, the chimp
looks absolutely ecstatic. A very joyous picture.
Unsurprisingly,
dogs play an even more prominent role here, appearing in 20 photos,
about half the time alongside other animals. While the pictures
involving humans are cute, I generally prefer the ones that show the
pooches in these unlikely partnerships. In one, a bulldog eyes a
squirrel suspiciously. In another, a basset hound attached by a rope to a
horse’s harness appears to take the much larger animal for a walk. Most
of the photos are funny, while a few simply make me smile, like the
picture of a dog snuggling with a lion.
A few photographs focus
on individuals, and not all of them involve animals. Some of the most
famous photos of Drysdale’s career have been of children caught
unawares. Most of the pictures in this book appear to be candid, and
some of them feature children interacting with each other, while others,
like the wonderful shot of what appears to be a three-headed ostrich,
involve several animals of the same species. However, as reflected in
the title, the driving theme of the book is interspecies harmony. Hence,
we get the horse peeking over the shoulder of a little girl reading a
book, the giraffe gingerly removing the hat from the head of an
oblivious photographer, the bear helping two men push a truck out of a
ditch, the cat sharing a food dish with a mouse, the pelican conferring
with several penguins and the duckling riding atop a small tortoise.
Despite
the lack of color, each photo is vibrant and commands the attention.
Reading the stories behind some of the pictures increases the appeal.
About two-thirds of the photos have some sort of commentary on the back,
whether it’s a simple identification of where the photo was taken or a
paragraph-long discussion of how a peculiar pairing came to take place.
For instance, the three-headed ostrich shot inspires a brief reflection
on the luck of being in the right place at the right time, as the
natural arrangement seen in the photo only lasted a few seconds.
Drysdale’s
photos reveal a man of talent, humor and compassion. If you enjoy
collections of quirky photographs featuring animals, children or both,
you will probably be just as enchanted by Our Peaceable Kingdom as I am.
No comments:
Post a Comment