There must be a touch of irony in the fact that after more than thirty years of working with Great White Sharks, one of my favorite photographic locations on land is known in the Oshindonga language as The Great White Place or Etosha.
My parents first took me to Etosha in 1976 when I was just 4 years old, and since then I have visited this 22,000km2 national park in Namibia most years of my life. This September, Monique and I once again ventured to this unique location for three weeks in search of evocative imagery of zebra, elephants and lions in particular.
You may ask, ‘Why Etosha.’
Quite simply, I find the chalky landscape, dust and harsh environment perfect for photographic work that looks to ask the eye to choose between photograph or paint brush.
The downside of Etosha is that it is an extremely busy park full of tourists; roads are so corrugated that the F- word is constantly in play; and the park rules are photographically restrictive.
Over the years however, we have learnt where and when opportunities exist within these challenges to create moody, minimalistic works that have a strong sense of art to them, not to mention chances to create images that are different to most wildlife photography depicting Africa.
This year the mood was accentuated as the park was in the throes of the worst drought in a hundred years. Yet, within this harshness, there were moments of incredible inspiration, drama and beauty rivalling the best we have ever experienced in this tortured landscape.
The Crow and the Crowd
An ochre pathway guides a large herd of parched elephants through the scorched and barren landscape whilst the ever-attendant pied crow looks on, both seer and siren to the trials and tribulations that befall all who live in the Great White Place.
The Great White Sage
For decades he has tasted the chalky white air, watched the red ball sunrises, and seen the mopane leach its green and fall as russet.
Each year his step becomes more arduous as sustenance and survival tenuously hold hands in a changing landscape.
Yet despite this challenge he stands tall, still and sentient reflecting on yesterday, engaged in today and embracing what tomorrow will bring on his storied transect of life.
A Signature of Stripes
As if a footnote on a page, a small herd of Burchell’s Zebra write their story amongst the ambivalent acacias that hide them from enemy, but also enemy from them.
I Stallion
Proud, defiant and brave, the noble stallion stands like an exclamation mark at the head of his herd.
Ahead of him they wait, those of tooth and claw, but not for nothing he has been chosen. He has defied them before, and will do so again.
The Drifters
In dust they dwelled whilst the tempest raged, each step blind unto the next. They must move on, unsteady and unsure of what the storm cloaked within its midst, they can sense the enemy is close. And then, as if a divine breath caressed the dust aside, for a fleeting moment they are revealed, the striped sailors adrift in the sea of sand.
Sire and Sentry
He has no luxury to wait for settled weather, nor does he wish to. He knows the scent upon the tempest tells of the favor he must perform, and of the enemies coming. A lioness is close at hand with whom he has earned the right to court, and court he must for challengers will soon be at hand.
Dust Devil
With laser focus he looks forward. Within the stinging tumult, opportunity awaits and confusion is his friend.
Force within the Gale
For me it’s a lens killer, small stones and dust sandblast my gear whilst my eyes have rings of sand around them akin to a desert panda.
Yet I am compelled to capture the visage of this force to whom the tempest makes no difference, he neither shields nor shuns the onslaught, but rather walks into its very heart.
Battle Lions
Invisible marks drawn in the sand, the finest of margins and boundaries that one must cross in order to survive. Each knows where the other lies, one drawn to cross to drink, the other to eat. Give and take in a chess game of life and death, with patience the victor, and impatience the vanquished.
Terror within tempest
A lioness stalks in the heat of the day knowing the scorching duvet of dust that creeps and swirls in its confused rampage covers and reveals both predator and prey in different turn.
She waits, she pauses, for soon she will be hidden and be within their midst.
Fool me once, shame on me … fool me twice, shame on you
A Zebra defiantly stands its ground in the face of it’s eternal enemy. It knows it’s strength and speed and is comfortable in the face of its approaching adversary who is not testing the strong, but rather the weak.
A Convulsion of Stripes
Fortune favors the brave, but it also favors the patient.
The most courageous of zebras dared to cross the boundary of safety in order to drink. The result, an explosion of fur and felid as a lioness who has been crouched for hours in the scorching mid-day sun, hurtles towards hundreds of panicked zebra who detonate dirt and dust in their frenzied retreat.
Desert Storm
I would not argue that this is possibly more of an action wildlife image than a fine art work, the latter always being my creative objective.
But it is mind blowing spectacles like this, and ones I spent over thirty years cutting my teeth with photographing the hunting great white sharks, that give you a great appreciation of the virtues of both predator and prey.
It is through this exposure, appreciation and understanding that puts you in a position to try achieve the essence of each justice in your artwork.