Remains of the Day

2021
Archival Pigment Photograph
37
x
41
in

Signed, dated, and numbered from edition of 12 on recto. Signed, titled, dated, and editioned on certificate of authenticity.

Frame: 52 x 56 inches

Intense bushfires swept through the veldt around Dinokeng in September 2021. It’s sadly part of life these days and no continent, other than Antarctica, is immune.

The charred canvas offered a conceptual opportunity, with the scorched earth littered with blackened wood. It was a bleak, apocalyptical scene.

Acclaimed conservationist, Kevin Richardson, cares for a handful of black panthers very close to this area and I recognised an opportunity to do something a little different. Black on black.

I took this photograph from a cage; there is no other way. The credit for it goes to Kevin. I had the easy bit in getting the panther’s eyes sharp. Without that crispness, there is no image.

It all came together as well as we could have possibly hoped. – David Yarrow