Martin and Osa Johnson

Ever wonder what photographer meat tastes like? The world almost found out in 1917 on Malekula Island when Martin and Osa Johnson started on their first of many photographic adventures. They went to shoot pictures of natives who decided Martin and Osa looked good enough to eat. Fortunately, for them and the world of photography, a British patrol boat came by and rescued the couple. A year later they returned to the same place and the same tribe and played back the film for the would be cannibals, who were impressed.

Martin’s interest in photography began as a young boy in his father’s jewelry store where the latest in cameras were sold. He used the cameras, helped himself to film from the store’s stock and shot roll after roll, learning by trial and error. As a high schooler he took his camera and developing equipment on the road to make his living. He failed to get enough business. Like today’s portraitists he wanted photos that gave some personality rather than the usual formal shots.
In Chanute, Kansas, a little girl brought her brother in for a sitting and Martin took off the boy’s hat, tussled his hair and shot. The children’s family didn’t think much of the picture, though Martin thought it one of his best. Several years later he formally met the girl, Osa (age 16), and they married. She still did not like the photo.
As a couple, the Johnson’s set off across the world to film pictures of natives and territory that had not been seen by Western people. Their purpose was to document a pictorial natural history of the wild animals including their habitats and habits. Most of the work they did was in Eastern Africa, in the country of Kenya.
Getting to the remote regions was a challenge, though they were able to drive, first using Fords especially outfitted for carrying all their equipment, and then later with Willys Knights. Eventually, they made a pod for mounting a camera on a vehicle so they could shoot from their vehicles.

Another trial was preserving their equipment and their film. The moist air corroded the cameras and mildew grew on them. Once they arrived in Africa, they cut up their rolls of film into manageable lengths, canned them and sealed the cans with wax to prevent moisture from entering. Wherever they went, Martin built a state of the art lab for processing his films carrying along 55 gallon drums of developing chemicals. Clear clean water was difficult to obtain because the lake waters were muddy and algae ridden. He would filter the water through charcoal and cotton or during the rainy season, he would collect rainwater in barrels.
Taking the pictures also proved to be a daunting task even though the Johnson’s had the newest equipment available. On one trip they had 20 cameras, 10 still life and 10 motion. Two of the motion cameras were mounted together, one shooting at normal speed while the other caught the same action at slow motion. Some of these cameras were electric run, a big improvement over their early equipment which had to be hand cranked. This also enabled them to be run remotely to capture close ups of the animals. The lenses on the cameras ranged from wide angle to landscape to diffusing, all made from custom ground glass. Natives were hired and trained to carry the various equipment so with a shout of a number, Martin would be able to switch cameras or lenses quickly.

A lot of the photos were shot from blinds, and on their longest trip to Africa, Martin developed a method for using dry battery powdered flash and trip wires to film nocturnal animals. He also became proficient in aerial photography. Though Martin and Osa did not care to fly, they returned to the States and both earned their pilot’s licenses. They bought two 1929 Sikorsky float planes and outfitted them for shooting pictures, developing, carrying equipment and camping. They then flew their planes across Africa to Kenya to shoot the same areas they had visited in the past, this time from the air.

It took a lot of money to finance their trips, but the novelty of their work helped them raise what they needed to buy cameras and other supplies. After each trip they would put together a moving picture show and travel the country talking about their adventures, the people of Africa and the animals. Their films were even shown on Broadway. Their most famous movie was of a lion they called Simba, which is now in video format. Although their first movies were done with a hand crank camera, the later ones were modern enough to have sound..

Martin and Osa’s adventures came to an abrupt halt while on a lecture tour in California during 1937 when their plane crashed. Martin died in the plane and Osa died from an illness not many years later. “Sometimes our adventures were exciting; other times they were plain drudgery. Much of the time we were happy and comfortable; some of the time we went through unbearable hardships. It was the sum total that mattered to us,” wrote Osa.
Osa wrote a book about their adventures which is available at the La Crosse Public Library. If you are near Chanute, Kansas it is well worth a stop to visit the Martin and Osa Johnson museum in the old restored train depot (a worthy photo op). They were an amazing couple.

Learn more at: http://www.safarimuseum.com/