TECHNES Encyclopedia Database

The naturalist Akeley dreamt of films which could bring to life the experience of mobile observation from a distance. Conceiving his fantasized space and time capsules, the habitat dioramas, proceeded alongside a desire to make films shot on the ground. Cinema had been held back by its limited technical capabilities, but his camera would liberate it (Bazin again...).

The habitat dioramas in the Akeley Hall of African Mammals at the AMNH were created, and inaugurated, after Carl Akeley’s death. They had been planned by Akeley in the 1910s, however.