GANDALF

SOUTH AFRICA // 2019

This white lion named after Tolkien’s character “Gandalf”, is one of the most formidable lions within Kevin Richardson’s famous sanctuary. Kevin is comfortable walking with most of the lions under his care, but Gandalf is not one of them. His relationship with every lion is different and I suspect that Gandalf has been one of his biggest challenges. Nevertheless, I wanted to take a tight portrait of Gandalf – where my eyes were exactly at his eye level. Thanks to Kevin’s extraordinary ability to work lions, Gandalf positioned himself in the one place that my idea could succeed and then he stood and stared me down.