Summer horns

The story behind the photo

Two ibex in the Pyrenees, lying down together on a warm rock in the middle of summer, horns tipped back, forelegs folded beneath them. The horizontal frame keeps both animals inside the same block of stone and the same stand of dry grass, so the picture reads as one group rather than two subjects. The ridged horns of the animal in front give the composition its diagonal; the second pair, set slightly behind and out of alignment, stops that diagonal from turning symmetrical and dull.

Summer light on a high slope is hard light, and here it came from behind and to one side, running down the horns like a finger along a comb and setting fire to the dry stems around them. The coats are almost exactly the ochre of the vegetation, which is the whole point: at rest, these animals are indistinguishable from their own mountain.

There is a particular slowness to midday in the high country. Nothing moves, everything digests, and if you want to photograph ibex at that hour you have to accept their tempo instead of imposing your own. I sat down too, and waited for the moment when the two heads were turned differently enough to give the picture some air.

I wanted a photograph of animals doing nothing at all, and of horns worn calmly, as ornament rather than weapon.