Flehmen Response

Maasai Mara Kenya 2009
An edition of 75 in all sizes

Flehmen Response was awarded in Nature's Best's Photography Awards in 2012 and it is the opening picture of As Long as There are Animals, published in 2014.

Flehmen Response became a landmark picture in 2009 because it compelled me to make more. He was a large male lion who I later learned was locally known as Lolparpit. As I took this picture I realised there are no ordinary lions. He was an entity to himself with a level of dignity I was not aware of before. With me on a wild plain in Kenya, far from the familiarity of London, was an entirely perceptive individual being, with self-awareness and sentience living in his own free world.

It will surprise many that black and white photography of wildlife was still rare in 2009, it's current status was yet to come. Flehmen Response was the subject of my first picture sale that year and remains one of only three pictures in my catalog which predates my use of Adobe Lightroom for processing.

Flehmen response is the behaviour in which some animals expose a duct at the top of their mouth and inhaling for several seconds. It is performed over a sight or substance of particular interest including of identifying the reproductive state of females.