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In it's identity as a wildlife image, I have no comment on interpretation, read it as you like. Perhaps the little bull licking the face of his cousin, who is so young the afterbirth has yet to hit the ground, will resonate with some viewers. Myself though, due to my relationship with the subject I consider this a portrait inspired by a specific genre, not in the animal photo genre.

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Some background is perhaps necessary. A couple of days after taking this photo the calf would die in my hands, just as unwilling or unable to drink milk from a bottle as from it's mother. The same day, we discovered another calf half eaten by eagles. Such grave natural events bring to mind our mortality and our finite condition — The root of sorrow for humanity.

However humans are capable of love and understanding which provide a means of transcending above sorrow. "This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all" ¹. I do not think it is an overstatement to say I risked life and limb to get custody of the calf and offer aid, while futile those compassionate actions nonetheless provide me a feeling of peace that tempers the grief.

<sup>1"Liber AL vel Legis", chapter one, passage thirty

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(Open Edition) Print Version: Color Version

(also see the Black & White, Tone, and Inverse versions if online (green dot), or if offline (red dot) then write me and ask about availability.)</sup>