Stillness on the Plain

Beisa oryx (Oryx beisa) standing face-on in an open East African grassland, its exceptionally long, straight horns rising symmetrically above its head against a softly blurred horizon.

Stillness on the Plain

LIFE

Across the open plain, distance usually diminishes things. Animals dissolve into heat and horizon; detail gives way to shape, and shape eventually disappears. Here, a solitary Beisa oryx (Oryx beisa) does the opposite. It stands facing the camera with an almost improbable symmetry, its long horns extending upward through the frame while the landscape behind it recedes into bands of earth, grass, and shadow. Far in the distance, other animals have already become little more than silhouettes. There is no movement to resolve the encounter. For a moment, animal and observer simply occupy opposite ends of a gaze. The vastness remains, but distance has collapsed.

Artist description

Across the open plain, distance usually diminishes things. Animals dissolve into heat and horizon; detail gives way to shape, and shape eventually disappears. Here, a solitary Beisa oryx (Oryx beisa) does the opposite. It stands facing the camera with an almost improbable symmetry, its long horns extending upward through the frame while the landscape behind it recedes into bands of earth, grass, and shadow. Far in the distance, other animals have already become little more than silhouettes. There is no movement to resolve the encounter. For a moment, animal and observer simply occupy opposite ends of a gaze. The vastness remains, but distance has collapsed.