Hunters

At the turn of the century, East African hunting safaris became a fashionable pursuit among members of the privileged classes, particularly in Britain and the United States. The completion of the Uganda Railway in 1901 provided easier access to the interior highlands of British East Africa (now Kenya), where large game, especially elephants, lions, buffalo and rhinoceros, was plentiful. The white hunter served these paying customers as guide, teacher, and protector.
It was in Kenya in the early 20th century that the tourist trophy hunting industry proper started, with wealthy European and American visitors paying settler farmers to guide them on hunting safaris in the area. Similar tourist hunting industries soon developed elsewhere in Africa.
South Africa currently has the largest hunting industry. There are also well-developed hunting industries in Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia, and to a lesser extent Zambia, Mozambique and Swaziland. The southern African hunting industry has grown in recent years due partly to a major increase in game ranching at the expense of traditional livestock farming, which has been particularly hard hit by both drought and recession.
Hunters explores the complex relationship that exists between man and animal, the hunter and the hunted as both struggle to adapt to our changing environments.

David Chancellor, born in London England, works and lives in South Africa. His work, for which he travels extensively, can be best described as documentary reportage. He has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions, exhibited in major galleries and museums, and published worldwide. Named Nikon photographer of the year three times, he received a World Press Photo award in 2010 for "Elephant Story" from the series Hunters. A study of his wife and son was exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery London (2009) and the following year he won the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize, at the National Portrait Gallery, with "Huntress with Buck" from the series Hunters. In 2011 he was a nominee for the 5th Annual Photography Masters Cup, his work was shortlisted for the Sony World Photography Organization Award, and the Freedom to Create Prize.