Behind the Lens

"Camouflage"
Maroesjka Lavigne (Ghent, Belgium)

Black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis)
​Etosha Pan, Etosha National Park, Namibia

A solitary black rhino greeted Lavigne as she drove along Etosha’s parched salt pan, the remains of an ancient lake. White dust covered everything in sight, including the rhino, which was caked in dried mud. The image “feels and looks logical because of the different structures and colors that seem to go perfectly together,” Lavigne says. It was an unforgettable close encounter with a magnificent yet threatened animal. “My heart felt like it was going to explode from adrenaline.”

"The Cat in My Backyard"
Nayan Khanolkar (Harare, Zimbabwe)

Leopard (Panthera pardus)
Aarey Milk Colony, Mumbai, India

Leopards prowl at night through this area of cow sheds and housing near Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Some residents are members of the indigenous Warli tribe who have learned to appreciate and live with the big cats despite the occasional too-close-for- comfort encounter. One tribal member let Khanolkar place a camera trap in his backyard. Four months of patience captured this startling evidence of a unique co-existence between humans and leopards.

"The Courageous Crossing"
Manoj Shah (Nairobi, Kenya)

Burchell’s zebra (Equus burchellii)
Maasai Mara National Reserve, Kenya

On a scorching day, thirsty zebras pause at Mara River during their mass migration through Maasai Mara National Reserve. The crossing offers a chance to drink, but at great risk—hungry Nile crocodiles live in the river, and lions lurk in nearby bushes. Shah documented this perilous moment by remotely triggering a camera that he hid at the spot. “The whole idea was to capture what an insect would see when in the middle of the herd.”

"The Awakening"
Francisco Negroni (Frutillar, Chile)

Calbuco volcano, 3 AM, April 23, 2015
​Fresia, Los Lagos Region, Chile

After decades of dormancy, Calbuco volcano erupted on April 22, 2015, prompting thousands to evacuate the area. Negroni set up his tripod at an elevated spot in nearby Fresia and used a long exposure to photograph nature’s explosive fury at its max—with funnel-shaped lightning and ejected magma reaching gigantic heights. “It was a landscape of fear that wowed me with unspeakable violence,” he says.

"Deep Space"
Eduardo Acevedo (Los Realejos, Canary Islands, Spain)

Portuguese man o’ war (Physalia physalis)
Juvenile imperial blackfish (Schedophilus ovalis)
Los Gigantes, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

March and April are the best months in the Canary Islands to see the strange and beautiful Portuguese man o’ war, a jellyfish-like colony of organisms. The creature’s stinging tentacles can paralyze small prey—but not this particular blackfish species, which is immune and sticks around for protection from predators. Acevedo spent years watching for the perfect convergence of clouds, sunlight, and calm seas to photograph this otherworldly tableau.

"Birds in Line"
Marco Urso (Milan, Italy)

Dalmatian pelican (Pelecanus crispus)
Lake Kerkini, Greece

Lake Kerkini, an artificial reservoir in a national park in Northern Greece, is a birdwatching mecca. It provides an important wintering area in Europe for the Dalmatian pelican, a huge, yet vulnerable bird species. “I wanted to show how pelicans fly. There were plenty of pelicans, but the challenge was to compose them.” Urso waited more than an hour for the birds to line up for the perfect shot.

"Sulfur City"
Peter Juzak (Wennigsen, Germany)

Microscopic view of sulfur crystals in polarized light
​Wennigsen, Germany

After Juzak melted sulfur on a microscope slide, the substance—often used in makeup— cooled into crystals. Viewing them at 120x magnification reveals a colorful landscape with bizarre shapes. “The view into the invisible becomes an adventure, the mundane becomes the magical,” he says of his experiments. “Photographing in the microcosm is always full of surprises. At the moment I saw this picture, I got the association of a megacity in my mind.”