Nick Brandt

The Empty World

Nick Brandt

Born in 1964 in London

This Empty World addresses the escalating destruction of the African natural world, showing a world where, overwhelmed by runaway development, there is no longer space for animals to survive. The people in the photos also often helplessly swept along
by the relentless tide of ‘progress’. hey are never portrayed as the aggressors, because they’re not. Environmental degradation will almost always affect poor rural people the most, due to the exhausted natural resources upon which they rely.Read more


Each image is a combination of two moments in time, captured weeks apart, almost all from the exact same locked-off camera position: Initially, a partial set is built and lit. Weeks follow, while the animals that inhabit the region become comfortable enough to enter the frame. Once the animals are captured on camera, the full sets are built. In all but a few of the photos, the camera remains fixed in place throughout. A second sequence is then photographed with full set, and a large cast of people drawn from local communities and beyond. The final large-scale (up to 140x300 cm) prints combine the two elements.


(Note: All photographs were taken on inhabited Maasai community land, without protected reserve status, close to Amboseli National Park in Kenya. After the sets were removed and all their elements recycled with almost zero waste, no evidence of the
shoot now remains in the landscape).