The Moving Camera and Films on Shelves - Text 2
Several individual lions once innocently crossed paths with Akeley in 1910, which afterwards will be narrated as a pivotal event in the genealogy of the camera. In the savannah of British West Africa, Akeley wished to seize the vitality of the lions and the spontaneity of their movements in the face of the Nandi hunters’ spears, but the camera he was holding was not cooperating. His frustration was the impetus for his conception of the Akeley camera:
The Nandi were chanting their weird songs of triumph, but there was no joy in Akeley’s heart. Mrs. Akeley, who had stood at his shoulder during the entire scene, could not hold back her tears, but a man cast in the mould of Akeley is not given to expressing his emotions in so mild a manner, and it is doubtful if the Nandi understood his strange speech.
Turning to his brave wife, he comforted her with these words: “Never mind, we will come back here some day, and when we do I shall have built a camera that will do this thing.”[1]
