TECHNES Encyclopedia Database

The historian Kevin Brownlow, by means of an anecdote told by the film’s co-director, Martin Johnson, highlights the paradoxical depiction of the work of filming images provided by these individuals:

In his book Johnson was ambiguous about the native reaction to photography. On the one hand, he claimed they had no concept of a photograph. “They turn it upside down and on its side trying to find out what it is all about. I have shown them the best of my flashlights and daytime stills and often they cannot tell an elephant from a rhino.” On the other hand, an African who worked as laboratory assistant became a photographic expert, and Simba shows tribesmen grinding away at Akeleys with the expertise of professionals.^[3] .