Poachers and greed. Global demand for ivory has put African elephants at a crossroads. Hunting and trade in ivory have reduced the number of African specimens at a devastating rate. At the beginning of the 20th century, Africa was home to some five million individuals. Today, pending the completion of the Great Elephant Census this year, the population is estimated at less than 470,000 individuals. As with other raw materials, China’s growing demand disrupted the entire African ivory market at the end of the last decade. Since 2004, its price has skyrocketed. from 200 to 2000 dollars per ounce. The killing, the experts calculate, reaches more than 35,000 elephants each year.
AYZ Contact Sheet Prints tell as much of a story in their own right as the images they birth.
With the rise of digital photography, the contact sheet has, in many ways, been relegated an anachronis but the insight it can provide into a photographer’s process is something timeless.
