Dinokeng, South Africa, 2026
The vast majority of the 1,000 plus pubs in the UK with the word “Lion” in their title have never been visited by a real lion and this is therefore the kind of moment they are missing out on. The lion looks imperious as he leaves his property with his prize.
Many individual components coalesce to elevate this parody, which I took at Kevin Richardson’s lauded lion sanctuary in South Africa. It’s a wry interpretation of life in the African bush and I seek only to entertain. These bigger projects tend to have no lofty ambition other than to be authentic and to breathe a little bit of cinema. I am always nervous of the mundane and the broader the story, the more comfortable I tend to be.
I sensed I needed a wider frame to offer some context, so I brought in the acacia tree on the right and a Zulu warrior to balance the composition on the left. My leaning was to depict the bar as marooned in the expanse of the African bush - that would play to the sense that it was the lion’s territory, not the human’s.
We were lucky with the late afternoon light that night; the clouds added to the dark humour and grit of the narrative. This was never intended to be a blue sky and sunshine image; I wanted to play to the lore of untamed Colonial Africa and there were some dark clouds to that story.
This was the first shoot where we have partnered with Lea Schimel from Vienna and she was outstanding. I want to thank her and our friend Larry King of London who styled her hair. It was exactly the right look for this African frontier shot.