A Version of Heinz Plenge Forty-thousand Years ago

This picture of a cave painting was taken in Chauvet Cave, located in the South of France, which was only discovered in 1994 and represents one of the world's most important archaeological sites with very well-preserved cave paintings dating back to about 37’000 years ago. The paintings suggest that during the Paleolithic, early feline species were also present in the northern hemisphere, and not only in Africa or India.
The image is part of Heinz Plenge’s photographic project Orígenes (“origins”), which tries to answer the important question “What makes us human?” When taking pictures of predators, Plenge as an authentic Peruvian, pictures mankind through animals, not humans, following indigenous populations’ respect for animals and their willingness to develop a bond with these creatures. This is exactly what also the cave artist has done many years ago using wall painting instead of photography. In fact, in the whole cave no paintings of complete human figures can be found. Plenge thus looks back at a version of himself who lived thousands of years ago. With this shot he returned to the origins of men, to one of the oldest places in the world where mankind has demonstrated their humanity through art, being a beautiful example of Orígenes.