Through the Ages (S), 2024

James Lewin  

Serengeti is a place that keeps on giving, and several of my best-selling images have been captured across this vast iconic landscape. However, the quantity of wildlife can be somewhat overwhelming. It is easy to take a good image, but incredibly difficult to take a great one.

Since my first visit to Serengeti, I have dreamt of capturing this exact moment and have since lost count of the number of days I have searched for it. Earlier this year, after four consecutive days with this male lion and his pride, luck was finally on my side. Lions can spend twenty hours each day sleeping and this moment was over in a handful of seconds. It was all about being in the right place at the right time.

Applying my signature style of capturing portraits without a telephoto lens from close proximity brought the depth, drama, and emotion I needed to convey the impressiveness of this powerful subject. It was well worth getting stuck in the mud for over four hours after being gifted with a background as dramatic as this as the storm rolled in.

If I had to choose one location to photograph for the rest of my life, it would be the Serengeti. Here, you get a taste of old Africa, with the vastness of the area difficult to comprehend. As soon as you reach one horizon, you see another miles in the distance, with nothing but plains, acacias, rocky outcrops and migration herds. Each time I leave, I am desperate to return. There is nowhere else like it.