Dinokeng, South Africa, 2026

I am fully aware that in 2026 any photograph that looks implausible will be deemed a product of AI. This is a whole new variable to consider now when releasing a new photograph. Could the photograph be fake? At least I am old enough to have the provenance of 45 years of photographs behind me. I feel sorry for the new kids on the block.

These AI concerns were one reason for bringing a B-roll film crew to Kevin Richardson’s Lion sanctuary in South Africa. If we could document the process, we would also eliminate doubt. All the constituent parts of this photograph are very real; I just photographed the girls immediately after I filmed Yame the lion. The lion is a danger to all except Kevin and I work from a very heavy cage.

The idea came together piecemeal in the days before the scheduled shoot. We had built the bar in Kevin’s sanctuary, but I was missing a strong foreground narrative, which is key to my work at Kevin’s. Given the mutual trust we have developed in our 12-year partnership, there is an expectation to be creatively bold when I visit. Proceeds from pictures like these, after all, help keep the sanctuary open.

My son Cameron reminded me of a photograph I had taken many years ago in Montana of a lady and a wolf in an old wreck of a car. The battered car roof separated the two and threw off an Hitchcockian level of suspense. The photograph may have been made in the deep winter and 10,000 miles from warm Pretoria, but I felt I could lean on the concept.

As my plans started to build substance, I understood how we could use a beaten up old 1950s car not only to divide the picture into sections but also to keep the lion and the lead woman visually compartmentalized. The picture makes sense.

The end product has a pleasing compositional harmony and all the credit for that really goes to Kevin. I think Tennessee Williams would have approved of the iterative process that ended with his lion leaping so gracefully on to the top of that “tin roof”.