Nick Brandt has watched East Africa deteriorate.
The England native has photographed in Africa exclusively since 2001, capturing the disappearing natural landscape and animals of East Africa. “Going back to Africa over the years I became increasingly shocked by the speed of the devastation to the natural world,” Brandt told The Daily Beast. His work has always been a call to arms for environmental reform, but his new collection is his most powerful – and heart-wrenching – to date.
Courtesy Nick Brandt / Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York
In his newest book and body of work, Inherit the Dust, Brandt erects life-size portraits of Africa’s vanishing animal population in the present-day bleak landscapes they used to roam. From elephants wedged beneath an overpass to a giraffe kneeling among cranes of a construction site, the series offers a grim contrast of past and present realities in the region.
Courtesy Nick Brandt / Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York
“Not just the animals are victims,” Brandt said. “Pragmatically speaking, from an economic point of view, protecting the environment provides an economic benefit to local communities.”
East Africa’s tourism industry is a potential cash cow that is unfortunately untapped as a result of disappearing animals, as well as global blindness from both government and industry. The local communities suffer as a result; as the economic value of these animals is staggering. “When an elephant is killed by poachers, the average sum earned by poachers and traders will be around $20,000, with obviously none of it seen by the community,” Brandt states in the book’s foreword. “But it has been calculated that over the course of its lifetime, a single elephant will contribute more than $1.6 million to the country’s tourism economy.”
Courtesy Nick Brandt / Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York
At first glance, Brandt’s portraits contrasted with stark landscapes could be dismissed as a Photoshop mashup, but as the behind-the-scenes photos show, they’re clearly not.
Brandt spent up to a week at a time at each location, constructing and disassembling massive prints on site, and patiently waiting for the right cocktail of appropriate weather and moody clouds for each shot. Brandt’s attention to detail, whether the skies or the seamless horizon lines, is impressive.
Courtesy Nick Brandt / Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York
Brandt imagined his animal portraits as “ghosts in the frame,” and they appear as such. The locals in the landscapes walk by the massive prints, generally disinterested. In one image, a group of homeless kids under an underpass sniff glue nearby. The reactions within the photographs were authentic apathy to the project.
Courtesy Nick Brandt / Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York
“The local people have way more important things to think about than some white guy setting up panels in dump site,” Brandt said. The exceptions, children whose curiosity is piqued by the massive animal portraits, are often the only thing linking the two realities.
Courtesy Nick Brandt / Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York
Brandt's work outside the lens falls within the same mission: he founded Big Life Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to conserving Africa’s wildlife.
Courtesy Nick Brandt / Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York
Brandt’s work is currently on exhibit in Edwynn Houk Gallery in New York, as well as the Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles. His book, Inherit the Dust, is published through Edwynn Houk Editions.
Courtesy Nick Brandt / Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York
