How the Leopard got its Spots (Color)

Kenya

2025

Edition of 6: 30in x 20in (76.2 x 50.8cm)
Edition of 6: 48in x 32in (121.9 x 81.3cm)
Edition of 6: 60in x 40in (152.4 x 101.6cm)
Edition of 6: 75in x 50in (190.5 x 127cm

Colour has always been the language of immediacy. It speaks to the senses before it speaks to the mind. In this image, made in Segera, the golden light of late afternoon bathes the leopard’s fur in warmth, echoing the dry breath of the savannah itself. The branch she rests on is stripped and sun-bleached—an honest stage for a quiet kind of majesty. Behind her, the sky stretches vast and pale, a backdrop that offers no distractions, only reverence.

This version of the image holds the weight of atmosphere. You can almost hear the insects hum, feel the heat radiate from the bark, and sense the stillness that comes just before dusk. The leopard is watchful but unhurried, part of a rhythm that has pulsed through this land for millennia.

For me, colour is not just aesthetic—it’s emotional memory. The amber tones and the soft gradations between fur and sky evoke the intimacy of being there. It’s not about documenting a scene; it’s about honouring the feeling of it. The interconnectedness I speak of—the river that runs to the sea, the predator that shapes the land—lives in these hues.

If the black and white version is a meditation, then this is a heartbeat. A visceral reminder that the natural world is not separate from us, but pulsing alongside us—vivid, fragile, and alive

I chose to release two versions of this image, one in colour, the other in black and white, to explore the dual nature of this world. The colour print evokes the visceral, living texture of the scene: golden fur, amber light, the quiet tension of a predator at rest. The black and white version pares it all back, inviting stillness and contemplation. In grayscale, the form of the leopard becomes archetype; timeless, mythic, eternal.

Both versions are meditations on how we choose to see. In conservation, as in art, perception is everything. How we frame the natural world, what we emphasize, and what we strip away shape how we value and protect it. These prints are not just images; they are invitations to look more deeply, and to remember that every landscape, every life, is part of something vaster and indivisible.