Michael Wilkins
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A zebra stands against a black background with its head turned back over its shoulder, stripes dissolving into shadow.

Zebra, Undone

Pumba Game Reserve, Eastern Cape, South Africa · December 2022

1D X Mark II, 400 millimetres, f 5.6, 1/500 of a second, ISO 125

Stripes doing exactly what stripes are for.

Zebra camouflage is not about hiding — it is about breaking the outline. Expose for the lit flank and the trick performs itself: half the animal walks off into black, and the stripes stop being a coat and become the whole subject. She turned her head back at the right moment. I underexposed and let the shadows do the rest.

Part of Pumba, a series.