Figure 1 – The British Camel Corps in action in British Somaliland in 1913. From the Flicker Commons and in the public domain, originally uploaded by Dzlinker.

In searching “The Week In Pictures” feature on BBC News, I was struck by this beautiful violet shaded image by Bernardo Montoya for Reuters of a circus performer in Mexico City “Running with Camels,” or at least a camel.  There is this controversy in Mexico City because the local government has banned the use of circus animal;s, which threatens the livelihood of the performers.

The image is not perfect in many ways.  It is too out of focus for my taste, despite the fact that the photographer has banned with the animal.  It would work as an indication of motion but is not quite successfull here. at least to my taste.  I do hower love the color and I love the glow of the spotlight.  But what I really love is that it triggers in my mind, reference to Eadweard Muybridge‘s ground breaking work on motion in man and animals, which answered once and for all the critical(?) question whether all of a horse’s feet leave the ground at once.  Well, as it turns out horse and camels run differently.  I guess that you could call it the “dromedary dash.”  But the critical point, to me, is the allusion to Muybridge’s work and, of course, to the Kevin Costner film “Dances with Wolves.”

Just to confuse the focus of this post, I could not resist posting as Figure 1 and image of the British Somali Camels Corp in 1913, between Berbera and Odweyne in, what was then, the British Somaliland.  Hut, hut!