This image of Sugimoto’s expresses his style. Evidently, the black and white theme continues but he uses animals instead of people or objects as his subject.  In the image, Hyenas, Jackals and Vultures appear to be fighting over something, likely a kill.  This fighting is a fine line where life meets death, the kill itself is represents the dark side of that spectrum. The weather also plays a vital role in exposing this theme which is only emphasized by the black and white. The horizon marks the border between the light and the dark, the margin that represents the border between life and death.

Despite the image being constructed post shoot, it looks very real and to the viewer, it creates a sense of fear perhaps and an exaggeration of the line between life and death. Visually, the image stands out by being unique and interesting with its wild subjects however the composition of the image itself increases the image’s likability. Being black and white, the image attracts a nice contrast between light and dark, linking to the theme of life and death that we see in the subject matter. Further,more, the sky has little structure and retains a rather smooth texture yet the shading adds a real depth to the image and almost sets the brightness of the entire image and creates an effect making the image appear brighter yet still having a meanness to it.

This image, despite using fake subjects, is quite a fascinating image when it comes to the taking of the image itself. It could appear that Sugimoto put himself in danger being so close to wild predators. He captures a lot of lives in that image and that fact even further expresses how fragile that can be as they fight over a kill. I would think that he used a wide angle lens at quite a close range, maybe only 5-10 meters from the subjects. I would believe he used a faster shutter speed and a medium ISO to capture the birds flying perfectly still but also having the light in the image to light the foreground but not too much to have the background (sky) to be over-exposed.