About Derek Cattani
MY STORY
It was during a chance meeting in London in 1970 that brought me together with John Rendall, Ace Bourke and Christian the lion. I was a young staff photographer on a national newspaper, chasing the latest scandals and taking pictures of the most famous faces of the time.
In the 60’s and 70’s The Kings Road in Chelsea was a mecca for fascinating people and party invites, and It was at a Chelsea party I first met John and Ace. I was a young freelance Fleet Street photographer and always on the hunt for an interesting picture story. When I heard their story, about buying a lion from Harrods and taking it for walks down the Kings Road, I just knew I had to meet this lion cub.
A few days later I was invited to Sophistocat Pine furniture shop in the World’s End, where John and Ace worked, and to meet Christian. He was then a three month old cuddly cub with the most amazing eyes and sharp teeth and I realized that I would have to get to know this beautiful little cub if I was to get good photographs, so instead of grabbing my camera and shooting away I just sat on the floor watched him, and waited. Eventually curiosity overcame him and after a short while Christian inched his way towards me and then pushed his head onto mine. John explained that this was a sure sign of welcome so over the following weeks I made regular visits and slowly gained Christian’s trust, and John and Ace approval of my patient attitude towards Christian. They saw that I was not just after a snarling one-off picture of him for a newspaper feature, so offered me the job as Christian`s official photographer.
Christian soon accepted me as one of his human pride, to him my camera was just a normal attachment to my arm and not something to be afraid of or chew, and being a very inquisitive playful lion everything had to be investigated. I could now spend long periods being with him and he would just ignore the fact I was there capturing his next move. Some of my favorite moments were of him in John and Ace’s flat, surely a unique location for photographing a lion. As Christian gained in size so did the cost of his meals and to get some cash flow to contribute, John, Ace and I came up with a few fun picture stories which we could sell to the now eager Fleet Street press. The Easter chicks feature was published in all but a couple of the National tabloids, but we never pushed Christian to do anything he didn’t naturally want to do. Playing with a football in Moravian Close was a favorite past time as were fun car journeys down the Kings Road and his gentle nature allowed him to be with children and friends alike.
It was my good fortune to be invited to go with John, Ace and Christian and a film crew to Africa to document the first stage of his rehabilitation with George Adamson, and being part of his London pride we all gained comfort of being together in such a strange and wondrous Land.
For me Christian gave me such a lasting love of animals and especially the beauty of the wild Lion that he was to become.
I dedicate my contribution to this book, to my wonderful wife Ann whose tireless help and support played such a large part on many of Christian’s photo sessions and is also part of Christian’s human pride.
Derek Cattani
Photographer
You can collect either a fine art Giclee print hand signed by photographer Derek Cattani or a High Quality photo print.
A charitable donation is given to LionAid from the proceeds of sales to help support their much needed wild lion population counts in Africa, conservation education In UK schools and political lobbying to cease imports of lion trophies in the UK and other European countries.
Available for purchase are photographs of Christian during his time in London.
They represent the best images captured of Christian and are featured in the books,
- "Christian The Lion The Illustrated Legacy"
- “A Lion Called Christian”
- “Christian The Lion”
- “Christian The Lion : My Picturebook” and the “A Lion Called Christian” DVD.
You can collect either a fine art Giclee print hand signed by photographer Derek Cattani or a High Quality photo print. A charitable donation is given to LionAid from the proceeds of sales to help support their much needed work to save the wild lions of Africa.
