Nick Brandt

In the early 2000s, with his Pentax 67II and two fixed lenses, he began to produce a trilogy. On This Earth (2001-2004), A Shadow Falls (2005-2008) and Across The Ravaged Land (2011-2012), show a different style from the animal photography as we know it. In fact, Nick Brandt established a style of portrait photography of animals in the wild similar to that of the photography of humans in studio setting, shot on medium format film, attempting to portray animals as sentient creatures not so different from us. Taken together, these three titles form a dark prediction: On this earth a shadow falls across the ravaged land.

In Inherit the Dust (2016), in a series of panoramas, Nick Brandt recorded the impact of man in places where animals used to roam. In each location, the photographer erected a life-size panel of one of his unreleased animal portrait photographs, placing the displaced animals on sites of human development. This Empty World (2019), his first color series, addresses the escalating destruction of the natural world at the hands of humans, showing a world where overwhelmed by runaway development, there is no longer space for animals to survive. The people in the photos are also often helplessly swept along by the relentless tide of progress. Each image is a combination of two moments in time shot from the exact same camera position, once with wild animals that enter the frame, after which a set is built and a cast of people drawn from local communities.

The ongoing global series The Day May Break, started in 2020 is described by the photographer as « perhaps the biggest crisis of all : climate change, or a more  tting phrase, climate breakdown, which negatively impacts every living creature on the planet. »

Born and raised in England, Brandt studied Painting and Film in London. He now lives in the southern Californian mountains.

In 2010, Nick Brandt moved to action and co-founded Big Life Foundation a non-profit in Kenya/ Tanzania that employs more than 300 local rangers protecting 680,000 hectares of the Amboseli/ Kilimanjaro ecosystem.

« It is better to be angry and active than angry and passive. Once you become active, the despair feels less overwhelming. Your actions, no matter how small, can energize and focus you. » writes the photographer in his essay from The Day May Break.