Osa Johnson (1894 - 1953) Notable Achievements First woman to take a movie camera to Africa, made popular film series on African and South Sea tribal groups. Occupation/Field of Study: photographer, explorer, marketer, naturalist, author Exploration Zone: Land: photography, filmmaking, ; Location of Activity: Africa; Pacific Ocean: Malakula, Malekula; Period of Activity: 1901-1950; Biography Born in 1894, American explorer and photographer Osa Johnson was the first woman to take a movie camera to Africa, traveling throughout the continent as well as in the South Pacific with her husband, fellow photographer Martin Johnson. When they married, he had just returned from accompanying author Jack London to the South Seas; shortly thereafter he wrote Through the South Seas with Jack London (1913). Four years later the two went on their first overseas trip together. They visited several South Pacific islands specifically looking for cannibals, and Johnson was nearly taken captive by one tribe on the island of Malekula; the chief had just grabbed her and was about to carry her off when a British war ship appeared on the horizon, frightening him into letting her go. Johnson and her husband also filmed the indigenous people they encountered. When they returned to the United States, they made a movie from their footage, Amoung the Cannibal Isles of the South Seas (1917). Over the next few years, they continued to travel to various islands to film indigenous people, producing more movies and a book, Cannibal-Land (1922). During this time they met African explorer Carl Akeley (husband of explorer Delia Denning Akeley), who encouraged them to photograph wild animals in Africa. Acting on his advice, they sought funding from a photographic company, Kodak, and the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and in 1923 they embarked on a major expedition to Africa. There they found a heavily used watering hole and built a house nearby, where they lived for four years photographing big game. They then visited several other sites in Africa, creating movies from their experiences. The Johnsons returned to the United States in 1932 but left for Africa again almost immediately, this time to fly from one remote region to another. In 1937 their plane crashed; Martin was killed while Osa survived and later remarried. In 1940 she published a book about her life with Martin, I Married Adventure, which was her most popular work. Two more autobiographical works followed: Four Years in Paradise (1941) and Bride in the Solomons (1944). Johnson died in 1953. -The Encyclopedia of Women's Travel and Exploration, Patricia D. Netzley 2001