Peter O'Sullivan, The Dust and the Drink (ANIMALS 2026)

This collection serves as a meditation on the "breath of the earth". It documents the rituals of survival where the elements of earth and water cease to be mere scenery and become active participants in the lives of the wildlife. This series follows a rhythm of necessity: the powdered armour of an elephant's dust bath, the vulnerable splayed legs of a giraffe seeking life at the water's edge, and the striped chaos of zebras rolling around in the parched red soil. These images are unified by the ochre haze of the dry season, the ripples in the waterhole and the heat of the midday sun. This triptych is a tribute to the endurance of life in a landscape that gives as much as it takes. It focuses on the documentation of behavioural action by utilising fast shutter speeds to freeze particles of dust and droplets of water which emphasises the gritty reality of the African savannah during the dry season.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.