This intense lion portrait was taken in the last moments of sunlight from a bespoke cage at Kevin Richardson’s lauded lion sanctuary, north of Pretoria in South Africa. The lions under his loving care will instinctively harm anyone, other than Kevin, in their way; they are wild lions, not pets.

His unique skill is both baffling and humbling and over our 14-year partnership we have developed a friendship as strong as any I have in the animal world. He knows as much about lions - the most endangered of Africa’s big 5 - as anyone. To see him at work has been one of the great privileges of my career.

I think the best friendships are based on trust and mutual respect and fuelled by humour. That’s where we are and meanwhile our working relationship is founded on safety and then driven by the need to transcend on a visual level. It’s not easy as we both set high standards and it is a prerequisite that we strategise long before we shoot.

I remember an interview with Matt Damon when he was asked about the process of making a movie scene. He said, “we iterate and then we iterate and then we iterate again”. That’s the way Kevin and I work. Photographs like this are made not taken. It’s very rare for me to take a photograph without prior creative processing.

I cannot conceive of the sort of human being who would point a gun at these majestic animals. But I do know that if it was a fair battle, it would all be over very quickly. Lions are the alpha hunters, not humans. The swagger in his step says it all.