A curious zebra gets extremely close to my camera at Faunaland Ancol in Jakarta, turning an ordinary portrait into a spectacular study of perspective—and nose size.
Ambitious, slightly crazy and completely laid-back—this could only be Marty, one of the most memorable characters from the Madagascar films.
Except this was not Central Park Zoo, and I was not in New York.
I photographed this particularly curious zebra at Faunaland Ancol in Jakarta, on Java—Indonesia’s most populous island. Zebras do not naturally occur in Indonesia, but for a brief moment, this one seemed perfectly comfortable posing beneath the tropical trees.
I initially planned to take a conventional animal portrait. The zebra apparently had a different creative concept. It stepped closer, leaned directly towards my camera and filled almost the entire frame with its enormous muzzle. The short distance and wide-angle perspective did the rest, turning a routine photograph into a rather personal consultation about nose proportions.
The closer it came, the more I felt as though I had encountered the real-life version of Marty: confident, curious and just unpredictable enough to make the photograph interesting. Zebras are also much more expressive than they appear. They communicate through facial expressions, ear positions and a surprising collection of sounds, including brays, snorts and calls resembling the bark of a small, slightly hoarse dog.
Their famous stripes are more than just an excellent fashion decision. Each zebra has its own individual pattern, and scientific research suggests that the contrasting black-and-white lines help prevent biting flies—including horseflies and possibly tse-tse flies—from landing successfully. None of that answered the most important question, however.
Does my nose look big in this?
Yes. Spectacularly big. And that is precisely why I took the photograph.- Date
- 2026-01-01