Collected Moments of Survival

Held Against Time Charcoal on Canson Montval 300gsm 70cm x 90cm There are moments in the field that last only a few seconds. This was one of them. I had been watching the herd when I noticed this young zebra beginning to move away from its mother. Only a few steps. For a moment, it was on its own. There was something about that little body standing apart from the herd that caught my attention. I watched, and somehow managed to isolate it from everything around it. But it didn't last. A zebra this young is rarely far from its mother for long. Almost as quickly as it had ventured away, it was back beside her. Safe again. It made me think about how much of growing up begins with these tiny acts of independence. A few steps away. A moment of curiosity. The first small exploration of a world that, until now, has been experienced from close beside a mother. Then the return. There is no drama in it. Nothing has been overcome. Nothing remarkable has happened. And yet, watching that little ...

What Is Seen Is Never Whole Charcoal on Canson Montval 300gsm 70cm x 90cm This is probably my favourite image from the entire collection. I think it is because, every time I look at it, I see something slightly different. The first thing I notice is the eye. That gaze again. There is something about the way a zebra looks at you that is difficult to ignore. Even when almost none of the animal is visible, the gaze gives it an extraordinary presence. But then my eye moves away from the eye. I notice the small section of mane. And then the stripes. They begin to become something else. For a moment, I am no longer looking at the markings of a zebra. I am looking at lines and shapes that seem to create their own landscape. They rise and fall. They move across the page. They create hills and valleys, shadows and spaces. And yet, somehow, I never lose sight of the animal. This is something I find fascinating about photographing and drawing wildlife. We often think of a portrait as showing us t...

  At the Edge of Appearance Charcoal on Paper 70cm x 30cm Sometimes an image makes me look twice. And then again. This is one of those images. There isn't much to see at first. One eye. Part of a muzzle. A few strong lines of the zebra's markings. And yet there is no doubt what I am looking at. The rest of the animal is almost absent from the frame, but somehow I don't need to see it. My mind fills in what is missing. Perhaps that is what keeps drawing me back to this image. The more I look, the more I see. The lines become less like markings and more like a kind of visual landscape of their own. They lead my eye towards the eye of the animal, and suddenly I am aware of that gaze again. It is unmistakable. Even with so little of the animal revealed, there is a presence that feels complete. I think this is one of the things that fascinates me about photography. We often think that seeing more means understanding more. But sometimes the opposite is true. When something is onl...

Breath of the Earth Charcoal on paper 70cm x 90cm As a photographer, I have always been fascinated by dust. There is something about the way it changes an image — softening the landscape, catching the light, creating atmosphere where there was none a moment before. Some of my favourite photographs have happened because of dust. An animal appears through it and, for a few seconds, seems almost to emerge from mist. I had walked past this particular dust bowl many times. I knew it was there. I knew what the animals used it for. But I had never really stopped to think about what it might offer photographically. Then one day, a zebra dropped to the ground. Almost immediately, dust began to rise around it. I turned the lens towards it. Of course, I knew why the zebra was doing what it was doing. There was nothing unusual about the behaviour itself. But suddenly the ordinary became something else. The dust lifted around the animal, catching the light and softening the edges of its body. For a...

  There is a strange discipline involved in drawing a zebra. The animal appears to offer the artist everything. Every stripe seems to demand attention. Every change in tone appears to need recording. The surface of the body is filled with subtle variations of texture, light and shadow. And when the subject is Hartmann's mountain zebra, there is an almost irresistible temptation to try to capture it all. For a long time, I thought that was what drawing was about. Looking carefully. Recording accurately. Leaving nothing out. But years of observing these animals have gradually taught me something rather different. Sometimes the most important part of a drawing is what I choose not to put into it. The more time I spent with the zebras, the less interested I became in simply reproducing their stripes. The pattern that makes a zebra immediately recognisable can also become a distraction. It is possible to draw every stripe perfectly and still fail to capture the animal standing ...

Kalahari Kreetures I Kalahari Kreetures II Kalahari Kreetures III It is 5.30am and the sun is edging its way onto the Eastern horizon of the Makgadigadi Pans. We do not have far to drive. Just a couple of kilometres from Jack’s Camp is a group of habituated Meerkats, the reason for the trip to Makgadigadi. Finding a Meerkat in the wilds of Africa, or more specifically, Southern Africa is not an easy task when time is limited and expectations are high. Certainly there are Meerkats spread all over the Western climes of Southern Africa but the crucial factor determining a trip dedicated to them is that they should at least sit still long enough to be photographed and not be hightailing it off in the opposite direction at the approach of a vehicle. Each time I explore for a new experience the dilemma of my impact on the intended target has to be considered. Habituation of wild animals is a hot topic with the decision of when exactly is habituation taming and when is it not. It is the dilem...

Title:  The Gaze Size: 70cm x 90cm Charcoal on Paper Framed in White Wood Frame Available from Fine Art Gallery, Swakopmund, Namibia THE YOUNG MAN OF THE ANCIENT RACE, WHO WAS CARRIED OFF BY A LION; WHEN ASLEEP IN THE FIELD While out hunting a young man ascended a hill as this was the best lookout post where he could wait. The sun was beating down and as the young man waited patiently he suddenly started feeling very sleepy. He decided that as it was so very hot he would first lie down and sleep before he started out on his hunt. While he was sleeping a lion came walking by heading to the nearby waterhole as he was very thirsty. The lion saw the man sleeping in the noonday sun and very carefully he picked up the man and carried him off. The man awoke startled. He then realised that he was now in the grips of a lion.   He decided that it would be best to not to react and to pretend to be dead as the lion appeared to think that he was dead. Should he move, the...