Publisher’s note: The Call to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to accounting for the environmental challenges that our planet is confronted, as well as the solutions. The Rolex Perpetual Planet Planet initiative has established a partnership with CNN to stimulate awareness and education around the main problems of sustainability and inspire positive action.
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Originally a term used by trophy hunters in Africa, the “Big Five” described the most difficult animals to shoot and kill: lion, elephant, leopard, rhino and buffalo. Nowadays, it is loose to designate some of the largest and emblematic animals in Africa.
However, British photographer Graeme Green has recovered the story, creating a world “new big five” for wildlife photography. In 2021, 50,000 people around the world voted for the five animals they would like to photograph or see photographed in the wild. Five animals were crowned the winners: the elephant, the polar bear, the lion, the gorilla and the tiger.
This week, sees the publication of the photography book “The New Big 5”, which presents images of these risky animals and other wild animals, legends of photography such as Imi Vitale, Steve McCurry and Paul Nicklen, and essays of famous environmentalists and activists, including Jane Goodall and Paula Kahumbu.
Green says that the book celebrates fauna and is a world call for action on wildlife issues, including loss of housing, poaching, pollution and climate change.
Green was in assignment to Botswana at least a decade ago when he had the idea of a project to encourage people to “shoot with a camera, not a firearm,” he said.
“I thought it would be a way to make people really focus on fauna, thinking of the fauna they love, thinking of animals that are in danger.”
In total, the book includes the work of 144 photographers of world renowned fauna from Ecuador to India. The preservation of images has taken almost two years of work, explains Green.
“I think these are the most beautiful and most creative images I saw assembled in a book,” explains Green. “These are the species that we risk losing.”
According to the UN, nature decreases at an unprecedented rate, with around a million animal and plant species on the planet in the face of extinction. The “new Big 5”, which are all threatened, act as ambassadors for what is happening in the natural world, explains Green.
In addition to being a powerful reminder of what we have to lose, the book also points people to potential solutions. The star trials explore the benefits of the re -enact and the importance of indigenous communities in conservation.
A chapter on species endangered with bees to blue whales illustrates climate change alarming threats to animals outside the “new big 5.” “This is only the tip of the iceberg – I could have included thousands of photos because it is how serious the situation,” explains Green.
Jane Goodall, a master conservationist who also wrote the afterword to the book, said in a press release that “we have a time window during which we can start to cure some of the damage that we have inflicted on the natural world, but only if we meet and take measures now.
“I hope the photos will lead people to the wonderful worlds of these emblematic species. Then,, maybe other people will get involved in creating a world where fauna can flourish so that future generations can take advantage of, “she said.
“The New Big 5: A Global Photography Project for Endangered Wildlife”, by Graeme Green, published by Earth Aware Editions, is on sale from April 4, 2023.
