Lewa, Kenya 2013

In my time at the Lewa Conservancy in Kenya, I principally focused on photographing the white and black rhinos for which the reserve is famous. Telephoto shots of static rhinos are hardly ground-breaking and my goal was to work with remotes in the hope of capturing a rhino charging towards the camera in its casing. There should be menacing proximity. However this approach did present some practical challenges – the grass is quite long in Lewa and therefore the ground level camera’s view can often be obscured and why also should a rhino run towards a steel box? After many failures we got there in the end – the key decision being to cover the camera in the rhino’s own defecation – they like their own smell.

I feel comfortable in my assertion that this angle of view makes the image fairly unique. It is a high-impact photograph of a magnificent and gravely endangered animal.