James Lewin, The Orphans of Reteti, Namunyak Conservancy, Kenya, 2022

18 x 27 in - Ed of 8
28 x 41.75 in - Ed of 6

James Lewin’s The Orphans of Reteti (2022) captures a moment of profound tenderness and resilience at the intersection of nature and humanity. Taken within Kenya’s Namunyak Conservancy, the photograph depicts a group of young orphaned elephants — survivors of poaching, drought, or human conflict — under the care of the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary, the first community-owned elephant orphanage in Africa. Through his signature black-and-white lens, Lewin transforms this intimate scene into a universal meditation on empathy, recovery, and coexistence.

The elephants stand together in quiet solidarity, their textures and forms rendered in exquisite tonal detail. The absence of color draws the viewer’s focus to gesture and light — the gentle weight of a trunk draped across another’s back, the curve of an ear catching the morning sun, the soft interplay between dust, hide, and horizon. Each element radiates both vulnerability and strength, evoking a shared emotional register that transcends species.

Lewin’s use of chiaroscuro lends the image a sacred stillness, recalling classical portraiture more than wildlife documentation. It is not merely a study of animals, but of kinship — a visual elegy to the bonds that sustain life in the wake of loss. The orphaned elephants, though displaced from the wild, are portrayed with dignity and grace, embodying the sanctuary’s spirit of renewal and hope.

As with much of Lewin’s oeuvre, The Orphans of Reteti operates on dual registers: as an aesthetic triumph and as a call to awareness. His photographs honor the beauty of Africa’s landscapes and its creatures while foregrounding the urgent realities of conservation. Here, the monumental and the intimate converge — the grandeur of life against the fragility of existence.

Ultimately, The Orphans of Reteti is both documentation and devotion — a testament to compassion as the most powerful force of preservation. Lewin’s lens reminds us that to protect nature is to protect something within ourselves: the instinct to nurture, to remember, and to endure.