THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 23, 1996 TAG: 9609210041
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LARRY MADDRY, COLUMNIST
LENGTH: 92 lines
NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER Ronn Maratea sat in front of a vertical, illuminated panel covered with the slides of his photos shot in Africa. The hairs in his backlit sideburns glistened like silver wires. Behind him, the film squares shone like colorful jewels in an exotic mosaic.
``I've seen tiny baboons exhibit the same fierce loving need for a mother's arms that I recall in my own children and grandchildren,'' he said. ``I suspect there is not a single human trait, from great courage to base cunning, that I have not witnessed among the countless species I have seen and photographed in Africa. The more I see of them the more I come to know of myself.''
Maratea's home base is in Virginia Beach. His pursuit of the perfect nature photograph has taken him from the jungles of southern Africa to the ice floes of Antarctica.
But it was his African photographs that established him as one of the world's best nature photographers. A wildlife calendar of animal scenes from Africa in 1993 earned him the title Best Wildlife Photographer in the United States from the Calendar Marketing Association. His photos have appeared in local museums and on greeting cards, posters, brochures and advertisements around the world.
Not bad for a Navy aviator who flew jets from aircraft carriers during the Vietnam War.
``I took up photography as a hobby when I was in the Navy and was surprised to learn that I could earn money doing something that was so much fun,'' he said.
His wife, Jan, is his scout on their many trips to Africa to photograph wildlife. They sometimes go there twice a year. ``Jan has an astonishing way of spotting an animal at a great distance,'' he said. ``I tend to miss things unless they are right under my nose.''
Nature photography, Maratea will tell you, takes extraordinary patience. One of his most admired photos - one that seems to draw a long ``ahhhh'' of satisfaction from all who see it - is of a male leopard in repose.
The young leopard is shown with his cheek against the limb of a camel thorn tree in the Kalahari Desert. The leopard's eyes are closed, a blissful expression on his face as though experiencing a pleasant dream. All four legs dangle into the air below the limb - like the appendages of a rag doll.
``I spent nine hours waiting for the shot I wanted,'' he said. ``There was always a problem. The pose wasn't right or there was too much shade dappling the leopard. Finally he lay down and boom! I got it.''
Another shot that tugs at the gentler emotions of nearly all who see it is a photo of a baby hippo resting its chin on the mouth of its mother on a river in Kruger National Park.
``The baby hippo was only 36 hours old,'' Maratea said. Hippos, he said, rank with the crocodile as the most dangerous animals in Africa. But the maternal scene captured by the photographer's quick eye - shortly after dawn - reveals their charm and docility too.
Sometimes his focus is more on habitat than the animal. A striking example is the handiwork of the weaver bird, a small bird which creates a nest of small branches intertwined.
One of Maratea's photos captured the small bird with its nest. ``There is only one entrance to the nest - from the bottom - which protects it from snakes and other predators,'' he explained.
Maratea, who was raised in Chicago, has been interested in animals since boyhood, when his parents took him to the zoo.
``I've always admired painters but had absolutely no talent for it,'' he conceded. ``Then my wife bought me a camera and suggested I try that.''
His photos are now on display at the Virginia Marine Science Museum in Virginia Beach, at Norfolk's Virginia Zoo and in the Elephant Museum of South Africa's Kruger Park.
His most poignant African photo - I believe - is one of three vultures clinging to the stark branches of a leadwood tree, silhoutted by a setting sun, which stares from the center of the angular limbs like a wounded eye.
A passionate believer in preservation of habitat, Maratea also subscribes to the view of Native American Indian chief Seathl, who said:
``What is man without the beasts?
``If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of spirit.
``For whatever happens to the beasts also happens to the men.
``All things are connected.''
Maratea's photographs connect us to the beasts and reveal our similarities to them in glimpses that are invariably interesting, often powerful and occasionally haunting. ILLUSTRATION: Ronn Maratea color photos
Virginia Beach photographer Ronn Maratea's shot of vultures clinging
to the bare branches of a leadwood tree, silhouetted by the setting
sun, is a stark portrait of Africa.
Maratea caught this gentle moment between a hippo cow and her
day-old calf along a river bank in Africa's Kruger National Park.
Color photo by MOTOYA NAKAMURA, The Virginian-Pilot
Ronn Maratea by CNB