Visual Africa Films Publishes High-Tech Book Elephants Wear Ivory by Feisal Malik & Tanvir Ali by Jason Peters
31 March 2019
“Elephants Wear Ivory” is the first coffee table book of its kind in Africa and amongst the first in the world.
The book is being used as a brand ambassador by HP Asia Pacific, to showcase the prowess of their printing technology and it contains images with Augmented Reality.
This is technology whereby one points a smartphone to an image, and it extracts a video instantly and plays it on the smart phone.
To understand this concept visually, watch this short film, whereby you can see how the technology works in the book.
The book has 50 unique images of Elephants, that celebrate their beauty and majestic nature, along with 50 stories that accompany each picture.
The images are the size of the book, an A3 page. On the opposite side of each page we have text that talks about the unique features of Elephants and how specialized they are.
The pictures of the Elephants are from the Maasai Mara, Amboseli, Samburu, Tsavo and Meru National Parks.
It is an easy read, and one doesn’t have to read from start to finish to enjoy the contents of the book. The Augmented Reality images in the book are 9, one of which is a full length documentary on Elephant Poaching and the ivory trade, that we produced. It is called “The Last In Line.”
Spread across the book are videos behind the scenes shoots of the journey made to produce the book. Scenes of photographing Elephants and travelling in the wilderness of Amboseli National Park.
This book is clearly a labour of love and, as the subject matter deserves, it is expertly executed. Feisal Malik and Tanvir Ali have put together a wonderful collection of images and stories all of which are beautiful and fascinating.The augmented reality part of the publication is a fantastic addition and wholly bridges the divide between still and moving images. It is wonderful to be reading a book and instantly have the story brought to life with video via a smartphone app. The fact that this book is very much about conserving Africa's largest land mammal makes it an essential read, and watch!
Also read: Elephants Wear Ivory: Fusing technology with art to protect heritage: www.nation.co.ke
& Irish Ambassador launches ‘Elephants Wear Ivory’ in Kenya: www.britsinkenya.com
Elephant research scientist and activist against poaching, Jim Nyamu, said: “This book celebrates elephants through beautiful pictures, and showcases elephant safaris. It also highlights the harsh reality of elephant poaching through the documentary; an ideal way to get the conservation message across.”
Feisal Malik talks about elephant poaching in this TedTalk:
