Photography is a fascinating art, that can create a whole world, a whole drama, a whole story with just a well constructed, well conceived image. The series Nature Pose of nature photographer Kurt Lolo of Lolo Pics has such images. Today's photo seems modest, a small mantis resting on a dead spiny branch of a hawthorn. The photo has two colours : the ivory colour of the mantis and the dead branch, and the dark green colour of the background. The impression of an ancient Chinese sculpture in ivory is undeniable, including the colour of the background that brings to mind the colour of green jade. This is an exquisite photo of a delicate composition, elegant, intriguing for its refined quality. The composition of the photo of the mantis reveals itself as a magnificent piece of sculpture, perched on an equally finely sculpted branch with thorny spines that make an effective contrast to the mischievous small mantis. It is a theatrical scene, that recalls the intricate Chinese sculptures made of ivory, depicting entire scenes of animals, plants, and people.
The tradition of ivory sculpture is ancient, and the oldest example is a head of the goddess Venus, found at Brassempouy, France, in 1892, that dates from 25,000 B.C. Elephant ivory was considered the best for fine sculpture, which contributed to the danger of extinction this magnificent animal now faces in Asia and Africa, as the harvesting of their ivory continues to this day in spite of international laws prohibiting its commerce, and in spite of heroic and sincere efforts on the part of several courageous organizations for their protection, in cooperation with African and Asian countries. In North Africa, the harvesting of the elephant's ivory goes back to the exploits of the Roman empire, and from the 18th century onward, the majority of elephant ivory commerce was done in subsaharan Africa. The ivory of the ancient Venus of Brassempouy was made from the ivory of a mammoth, and in medieval Europe, ivory came from the tusk of a walrus, and in the 19th century, condemned prisoners were conscripted to dig up the ivory of ancient mammoths in Siberia and North America. The trade of walrus tusks was well established during Viking times, and during the Middle Ages, there was also the commerce of sperm whale teeth, and whale bones, in the Basque whaling industry, or from spontaneous beaching. The commerce in ivory is an enterprise of global proportions since antiquity, and one remarkable piece that has survived is a throne sculpted out of ivory in 550 A.D., for the bishop of Ravenna. There is an exquisite example of an ivory sculpture of queen Cleopatra, made in 1635, by the German sculptor Adam Lenckhardt ( 1610 - 1661 ), with the queen partially nude, with as title " Cleopatra with the serpent ", that puts light on the vulnerability of the queen's skin, by the unique attraction ivory has at its touch. Ivory is is a material that is very well suited for the geometric motifs of Muslim art, especially during the height of its prosperity from 750 to 1258 A.D. and used ivory form India and Africa.
The elegant and delicate photo of Kurt Lolo of the precious mantis resting on a thorny hawthorn branch has this intricacy of an ivory sculpture, it even has the colour of ivory, it is truly an exceptional photo in composition and beauty, a miniature worthy of the legendary pieces of this ancient art. The photo of nature photographer Kurt Lolo has the advantage and merit that it did not cost the life of an animal victimized by a trade that continues to cause misery for the benefit of ruthless people without scruples or a conscience.
Trudi Ralston
The research on the history of ivory and its commerce, courtesy of Wikipedia.
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