Photography

Reading the Wild Through Images.

I photograph wildlife not simply as subjects, but as lives unfolding in the wild.

01 / 05

Behaviour

The moment begins before the obvious action.

Reading behaviour means watching what changes before the photograph happens — direction, attention, hesitation, tension and movement.

A black rhino and a white rhino standing face to face in grassland at golden light, their heads and horns almost touching, dense green bush behind. — Two Rhinos MeetThe two species rarely share a frame.

Mating Rhinos

A wildebeest caught in mid-air leaping off a low bank into a muddy river, spray beneath it, other wildebeest hesitating at the water's edge and a dense herd crowded in the foreground. — A Leap Into the River

A large crocodile in a fast, sediment-brown river, its jaws clamped on a dead wildebeest, its back and tail arced above the churning water in warm low light. — Crocodile in the Current

A serval standing in dry grass at golden hour, body low and tense, its large ears and head turned sharply to the side. — The Listening Serval

About a dozen marabou storks standing in muddy shallows around two large bloated carcasses, a crocodile beside one of them, under hard daylight. — The Scavengers

02 / 05

Individual Lives

Not an animal. This animal.

The longer I work in the field, the less I see wildlife as anonymous subjects. Individuals have histories, relationships and lives that continue beyond a single frame.

Black Leopard at NightMeet Giza →

A juvenile gorilla sitting on leaf litter in dark rainforest, one hand near its face, looking up and to the side, forest debris caught in its fur. — A Young Gorilla

A silverback gorilla standing side-on in dense dark rainforest, head turned to the camera, a second gorilla seated in the background holding vegetation. — The Silverback

A lioness lying in short green grass, mouth slightly open, a small cub pressed cheek to cheek against her jaw with one paw raised. — Lioness and Cub

A young elephant calf reaching its trunk upward between the front legs of an adult elephant, dry golden grass behind, the adult's body filling the top of the frame. — A Calf Reaches Up

An adult giraffe bending its neck right down over a young giraffe's head and neck, low green scrub and soft distant hills behind. — Giraffe and Calf

An adult plains zebra grazing with its head hidden, a young foal standing close against its flank and looking at the camera, their stripes overlapping into a dense pattern. — Black and White

An adult cheetah sitting upright and alert in tall golden grass, two small cubs huddled together lower in the grass to one side. — Cheetah with Cubs

03 / 05

The Animal in Its World

Look at the world this animal belongs to.

Wildlife is inseparable from weather, landscape, water, light and space. Sometimes the animal should be small enough for its world to remain visible.

A wide dawn view of Mount Kilimanjaro's snow-capped massif across a still lake, with a large raft of flamingos and other waterbirds feeding in the shallows and one flamingo in flight. — Kilimanjaro and Flamingos

A single antelope walking across open green grassland, a broad soft rainbow descending from towering storm clouds behind it. — A Rainbow on the Plain

An adult elephant striding along an earth track with a very small calf close beneath it and two egrets nearby, warm low sunlight on the elephants against a dark blue storm sky. — Under the Storm

A grey heron walking along the base of a tall, warm-lit eroded river bank at the waterline, with a near-perfect mirror reflection in the dark still water. — Heron, Reflected

A loose single-file line of flamingos wading through pale shallow water at low light, a sunlit ridge behind and reflections below. — Along the Shallows

A scattered herd of dark-bodied animals grazing on a green plain in silhouette, two lone acacia trees, and a large cloud bank with shafts of light breaking through at sunset. — Under a Breaking Sky

A cheetah standing on a raised earth mound with dry grass, small against a wide hazy sky over open plains. — Noma on the MoundMeet Noma →

04 / 05

Coexistence

The wild does not exist without people at its edges.

Pastoralists, livestock, roads, tourism and protected areas all enter the same landscapes. These photographs begin to ask how people and wildlife occupy a shared world.

Two people driving a strung-out flock of sheep and goats along a dark earth track across dry rangeland, a large lake and mountains behind, more livestock scattered on the plain. — Moving the Flock

Three people standing in a line in silhouette on a fallen tree, looking out over a lake, against a burning orange sunset sky. — Three Figures, Sunset

A young boy in an orange shirt striding across grass with a herding stick, a red calf leaping ahead of him and goats trotting nearby, a low earth-and-thatch structure behind in golden light. — A Boy Herding

A dense wildebeest herd on trampled grassland under a flat grey sky, with a long line of parked safari vehicles along a track behind them. — Herd and Vehicles

05 / 05

Movement & Time

A photograph can freeze time — or reveal its passage.

Migration, dust, water, blur and rhythm allow photography to move beyond recording what happened and begin expressing what movement felt like.

A group of wildebeest galloping through dry grass rendered as heavy motion blur in warm low light, one lifted head holding partial focus. — Running, Blurred

A very wide view of wildebeest walking in single-file trails across tall golden grass in thick backlit dust, the lines converging toward a bright horizon. — The Long Line

A broken line of wildebeest trotting through low golden grass in heavy backlit dust, more animals faint on a ridge behind. — Through the Dust

About twenty wildebeest swimming a wide, fast, muddy river in a broken diagonal line, only their heads and shoulders above the churning water. — The Long Crossing

Wildebeest crossing a wide muddy river — a line strung across the current with heads above water, some climbing the far bank, a large soft herd on the near bank. — Into the Current

An adult cheetah walking away down a red-earth track at last light with three cubs following and tumbling behind it, long shadows across the ground. — Heading Out

Several of these frames are from a Mara River crossing. Read the field note.