Elephants

1st Prize This picture is vastly different from any other picture in the competition. There is nothing pretty or sentimental about it. It’s about the harsh world we live in today, the real world. Elephants are murdered for their ivory in Africa, and in the Indian subcontinent there are the occasional displaced elephants in the streets. The green colour cast on the elephant adds to the surreal nature, creating a sense of unease in the viewer. It prompts you to think, to ask questions, and go beyond seeing elephants as mere cute creatures, but living beings who are struggling for survival.

There is great humour in this image. The half-in/half-out view adds to the surreal nature of it, the startled eye and the crowded beach behind invokes questions in the viewer. The people seem oblivious to the elephant in the water. They’re all looking at something else. What could possibly be more interesting?

You can almost smell the dust in your nostrils, and feel the warmth of the early light when the sun is low on the horizon. These elephants are doing what the usually do – lazing around, drinking water, letting the day unfold in the most beautiful, tranquil setting.

This picture demonstrates the versatility of elephants and how they adapt to the environment in order to find food. They can’t jump, but they can stretch and reach areas other animals cannot. The trunk is extraordinarily sensitive. It can pick up a single leaf or break a tree.

The lighting is beautiful, with the emphasis on the baby’s eye and the back-lit hairs. The framing between the mother’s legs gives the viewer a sense of the security that the young elephant seeks from its mother. The fading to black on the sides adds to emotion of the image by enclosing the baby in a secure frame. I think the image should have been cropped on the left side s bit so that the baby would not have been so central, just to add some visual tension.