DEREK CATTANI
FROM LONDON TO AFRICA
The story that captured the imagination of the world...
In 1969 Harrods department store in London sold a three-month-old lion cub to two young Australians, John Rendall and Anthony (Ace) Bourke. They called him Christian. For a year Christian lived happily and safely with John and Ace and his human 'pride', initially in the World's End on the King's Road in Chelsea, where Derek Cattani first began photographing him.
When Christian outgrew his London environment he was entrusted to the care of George Adamson in Kenya, who with his wife Joy, had successfully rehabilitated their lioness Elsa, the subject of Joy's Book Born Free.
A year after Christian had been living in the wild John and Ace returned to Kenya to try and find him. The film clip of their emotional reunion has now been viewed by over 100 million people on YouTube.
In 1973 Christian disappeared into the wild forever. George Adamson had uniquely rehabilitated a 5th generation zoo-bred lion.
When John and Ace took Christian to Kenya in 1970 there were an estimated 300,00 lions in Africa. Today there are fewer than 25,000.
Derek Cattani with Christian the Lion. Africa 1970
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Derek Cattani is an international award-winning photographer, whose career spans some four decades on assignment for many top magazines and Fleet Street newspapers including the Daily Mail and The Sunday Times. The highlight of his early career was meeting and photographing Christian, an amazing lion cub in London, and going with him and his owners to Africa. After a gentle process of introduction, Derek was able to capture all manner of images of Christian, from sitting in an open top car in Chelsea to football sessions in a high-walled garden, culminating in Christian's final adventures when he was taken back to Africa to be rehabilitated back into the wild with George Adamson, at that time the world's leading expert on lions. Derek has continued to be involved to the present day with Lion Aid.
Derek's photographs capture the early days in London and Africa with a sincere passion and convey the fun of watching Christian and the love of seeing a lion back in Africa.
