Abstract

In this introduction, we deconstruct and reconstruct the title of this volume, which includes the terms ‘animal’, ‘wild’, and ‘photography’. By doing so, we reveal that photographs of wild animals are more than just historical records or beautiful images; they also represent a discursive configuration of ecology, colonialism, technology, and human-animal relations. Rather than showing the true nature of animals or foreign landscapes, as the historical term ‘Natururkunden’ might imply, these photographs capture an animal’s ‘Antlitz’ in an ethical sense, referring to Emmanuel Lévinas’ concept of the face. This marks the aesthetic dimension of the photographs. Moreover, borrowing from Donna Haraway, these photographs also serve as material-semiotic generative nodes of knowledge, technology, and practices (like hunting), thereby becoming a tool for critical rethinking of the Western view on animals and ‘Nature’.