I believe this to be some of the most beautiful and emotional photographs I have seen in a while. Perhaps because I am such an animal lover I wish I could experience what it must have been like just for a day to grow up with a lion the same way most people grow up with dogs. These photos were taken by Michael Rougier for Time Life magazine in the early 1970s.
Born in England on June 16, 1925, Michael Rougier began his career as a photographer for the Montreal Standard newspaper. His big break came when he was assigned to photograph cattle being shipped to Argentina from Canada. While in Argentina, he made photos of the then-camera shy Eva Perón, eventually smuggling the pictures out of the country and back north. Those images ran in both the Standard and in LIFE, where he was hired as a staff photographer in November 1947, remaining with the magazine for more than two decades.
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