David Chancellor's Hunters offers an unsettling look at African blood sports

Date
31 October 2012

If you’re an animal lover it’s highly likely you’ll find these images upsetting. The bloodied carcasses of slaughtered beasts have a habit of turning the stomachs of even the most committed carnivore, but David Chancellor’s portraits of hunters in various parts of Africa are also remarkably compelling, inviting us to witness a ritualistic and deeply personal pursuit that very few will ever have experienced.

At the start of the 20th Century hunting was a popular pursuit for the privileged white classes across east Africa, with tourists coming from Europe and the USA to pit themselves against all manner of wildlife. Since then our relationship with bloodsports has diminished vastly and the sight of men, women and children smeared red, kill draped from their shoulders, holds different connotations.

Whatever your opinion of hunting as a passtime there’s no denying that Hunters is a stunning body of ongoing work by a truly talented portrait photographer – one of the shots even won the Taylor Wessing portrait prize in 2010. If you’d like to see them in the flesh they’re be on show at the Jack Bell Gallery until November 10.

Above

David Chancellor: Hunters

Above

David Chancellor: Hunters

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About the Author

James Cartwright

James started out as an intern in 2011 and came back in summer of 2012 to work online and latterly as Print Editor, before leaving in May 2015.

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