untimely resting place

in november 2011, the ewaso ng'iro river in north-central kenya came down in a massive flood, the likes of which hadn't been seen before. this is primarily because of changes to land use that have occurred upstream over the past sixty years: human impacts. on the whole the land use changes had resulted in declined water flow (because of higher levels of water abstraction upstream); but on this occasion, a huge downpour meant that all the water rushed down the rivers. and took everything with it - including elephants. this the the final resting place for this elephant's skull - the rest of his/her skeleton (and still rotting remains) were some 300 metres further upstream wedged between some rocks. a number of elephants were caught and drowned in the flood; what prompted them to try to cross or get caught in the flood, no-one knows.

this is precisely how i found it - nothing changed, i just made the photograph in the evening light. thanks for looking.

mamiya 7ii, 43mm lens, ilford delta b&w film, tripod.

sabuk, kenya