--- title: The Leopard and the Baboon: Anatomy of a Classic (Staged) LIFE Photo description: The story behind John Dominis' hair-raising portrait of a leopard and a baboon, made moments before the huge cat kills its terrified prey. canonical: https://time.com/3878734/the-leopard-and-the-baboon-anatomy-of-a-classic-staged-life-photo/ author: Ben Cosgrove article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-01-23T04:47:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:03:47.209Z og:title: The Leopard and the Baboon: Anatomy of a Classic (Staged) LIFE Photo og:description: The story behind John Dominis' hair-raising portrait of a leopard and a baboon, made moments before the huge cat kills its terrified prey. og:url: https://time.com/3878734/the-leopard-and-the-baboon-anatomy-of-a-classic-staged-life-photo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte54a538220b3ae18/69884a9b5f570fa999b1aec4/domi_d_ic2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1500 og:image:height: 844 og:image:alt: Leopard and Baboon, 1966 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Leopard and the Baboon: Anatomy of a Classic (Staged) LIFE Photo twitter:description: The story behind John Dominis' hair-raising portrait of a leopard and a baboon, made moments before the huge cat kills its terrified prey. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte54a538220b3ae18/69884a9b5f570fa999b1aec4/domi_d_ic2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Leopard and the Baboon: Anatomy of a Classic (Staged) Photo by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jan 23, 2014 4:47 AM UTC  A leopard about to kill a baboon, Botswana, Africa, 1966. A leopard about to kill a baboon, Botswana, Africa, 1966.John Dominis—TIme & Life Pictures/Getty Images by [Ben Cosgrove](https://time.com/author/ben-cosgrove/) ## Ben Cosgrove Jan 23, 2014 4:47 AM UTC A staff photographer for LIFE for more than 20 years, the late [John Dominis](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/01/arts/design/john-dominis-a-star-life-magazine-photographer-dies.html) photographed . . . well, _everything_, and he made some of the most memorable pictures to ever grace the pages of LIFE. Among his most famous shots, in a career filled with phenomenal work, is a hair-raising portrait of a leopard and a baboon, seen mere moments before the huge cat kills its terrified prey. It’s an explosive, unsettling and mesmerizing picture. And it was staged. Or, more accurately, it was not quite the utterly impromptu scene—encountered, fortuitously and unexpectedly—that one might expect to find in a classic photograph, especially from a photojournalist of Dominis’ rightly celebrated bona fides. Instead, the picture was set up, in accordance with the practices of the time. Another LIFE great, the photographer John Loengard, interviewed Dominis in October 1993, and quoted him discussing this very picture in the book, [_Life Photographers: What They Saw_](http://www.amazon.com/Life-Photographers-What-They-Saw/dp/0821225189/) (Bulfinch Press, 1998): --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- Does the fact that this extraordinary image is not, in today’s terms, a purely naturalistic feat of photojournalism somehow detract from its power? Is the leopard’s implacable strength any less formidable, or its lethal grace any less awe-inspiring? Is the photograph itself, technically and aesthetically, any less impressive when we learn that the circumstances under which it was made were**_—_**even in part**_—_**manufactured? We don’t have the answers to these questions. But we feel they’re worth asking. We also take John Dominis’ word for it when he says that he made the picture in good faith, and not with the intention to somehow deceive, or put one over on the viewer. In the end, the harrowing, beautiful photograph he made has earned its longevity. [\[MORE: “LIFE With Steve McQueen: Photos of the King of Cool in 1963”\]](http://life.time.com/culture/steve-mcqueen-photos-of-the-king-of-cool-1963/#1) [\[MORE: “LIFE With Sinatra: Portraits of ‘The Voice’ in 1965”\]](http://life.time.com/culture/frank-sinatra-life-photos-from-the-chairmans-private-world-1965/#1) _Ben Cosgrove is the Editor of LIFE.com_  A leopard about to kill a baboon, Botswana, Africa, 1966. 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