Up Close: Land of Nothingness

Belgian photographer Maroesjka Lavigne on the ghostly quality of a poignant, serendipitous shot in Namibia’s Etosha National Park.

  • Words + Photography: Maroesjka Lavigne

I took this picture the second time I visited Etosha National Park in Namibia. I was with my partner, who hadn’t been before, and explained that since the park is vast [8,600 square miles] it’s necessary to be patient to get sightings of the larger animals.

Land of Nothingness by Maroesjka Lavigne.

So we arrived prepared for a long wait. Yet almost immediately we saw this rhino. I needed to organise myself quickly to grab the opportunity. It was amazing because the rhino was still covered in mud and the weather had just changed so it was in a hurry to find shelter before the storm. Even now I find it hard to believe it happened.

Maroesjka Lavigne is a photographer based in Ghent, Belgium.

Article taken from

Issue 09
Articles

Further Reading

View All

Living Free

When Devi Asmadiredja arrived off the bus in Georgia’s Pankisi valley, she had never travelled, spoke no Georgian or Chechen, and knew no one. Living among the locals, she soon began spending weeks walking alone in the mountains.

The Man Who Talks to Sperm Whales

James Nestor reports on the astounding qualities of the sperm whale. Working with a highly qualified free diving crew he discovers how we are getting ever closer to communicating with the world's largest predator.

Swimming Upstream

This year's forest fires in the Amazon marked an environmental catastrophe, but a Rolex-award-winning scheme to save its largest fish spells hope for the future.

Castro, Cousteau and I

In 1985 Jacques Cousteau visited Cuba. He stepped off his legendary ship, Calypso, and into the welcoming arms of Fidel Castro. From the Plaza de la Revolución to the bottom of the sea, Paula DiPerna looks back on the months she spent with the unlikely pair.

The Airship Revolution

It’s the longest aircraft in the world, ready to set more records than Concorde yet its presence is bashful, modest, perhaps embarrassed by its own simplicity. Avaunt discovers the future of aeronautics.

Archive Letter: Going All Gonzo

Hunter S. Thompson dedicated his life to pushing things to the limit. In this letter to an editor at Playboy, he reflects on the style of an epic biographical feature he was working on.
Browse by Category