Peter Beard’s early photographs, from portraits to documentary work, form the basis for some of his most creative and compelling compositions. In the present, monumental work, Giraffes and Zebras, the central image, an enlargement of Beard’s 1964 photograph of grazing animals, is surrounded by a profusion of colourful inkwork and collaged elements.

The whimsical margin illustrations, created by artists working alongside Beard at his home and studio, Hog Ranch, show somewhat-realistic representations of the flora and fauna of Kenya as well as outlandish creatures and imagined scenarios, such as a figure parachuting into the scene and a fire-breathing dragon locked in combat with a fighter plane.

In addition to artfully applied inks, collaged elements on the present work speak to Beard’s deep concern for responsible hunting practices, conservation, and the history of game tourism in Africa. The images in the lower left depicting president Theodore Roosevelt with a hunting party in 1909 were reproduced in Beard’s landmark volume, The End of the Game (1963), which documented the impact of Western civilization on the wildlife of Africa. A fragment of a photograph showing a lion waiting to pounce is positioned in the lower right corner, carefully balancing the composition.