Fox rest
- 📍 Location: Croissy-sur-Seine, France
- 📅 Date: 2022
A fox lying in a mown meadow near Croissy-sur-Seine, head up, forelegs stretched out in front of him, entirely at ease. The horizontal frame gives him the lower third and leaves the rest to grass and hedgerow, so the animal is placed rather than presented. He is not filling the picture, he is occupying a corner of it.
The light comes from the side and low, which is why the guard hairs along his back are burning slightly while his face stays in shadow, and why the meadow holds that particular soft green that only lasts an hour. A wide aperture leaves the grass in front of him and the hedge behind him unresolved, so the sharp band across his body reads as a shelf of light he has chosen to lie on.
There is something almost insolent about a wild animal resting in the open. Everything we are taught about foxes involves vigilance, and here is one stretched out in a field like a dog on a lawn, watching me with no intention whatsoever of standing up.
My intention was to photograph that confidence rather than the animal’s beauty. The print is not about a fox being handsome, it is about a fox being comfortable, which is far rarer to witness and much harder to earn.
Limited-edition fine-art print from the Skywaven Studios collection, available in several sizes, papers and framing options.
