199 - Nick Brandt

A Small Voice: Conversations With Photographers

Nick Brandt’s photographic series always relate to the devastating impact that humankind is having on both the rapidly disappearing natural world and now on itself, as a result of environmental destruction, climate change and human actions.
In the East African trilogy, On This Earth, A Shadow Falls Across The Ravaged Land(2001-2012), Nick established a style of portrait photography of animals in the wild similar to that of humans in a studio setting, shooting on medium format film, and attempting to portray animals as sentient creatures not so different from us.
In Inherit the Dust(2016), Nick photographed in places in East Africa where the animals used to roam. In each location, life size panels of unreleased animal portrait photographs were erected, setting the panels within a world of explosive human development. It is not just the animals who are the victims in this out of control world, but also the humans.
Photographed in color, This Empty World(2019) addresses the escalating destruction of the East African 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 Day May Break (2021) is the first part of a global series portraying people & animals impacted by environmental destruction. Photographed in Zimbabwe and Kenya, the people in the photos have all been badly affected by climate change - displaced by cyclones that destroyed their homes, displaced & impoverished after years-long severe droughts. The photos were taken at 5 sanctuaries/conservancies. The animals are almost all long-term rescues, due to everything from poaching of their parents to habitat destruction & poisoning. These animals can never be released back into the wild. Now habituated, it was therefore safe for strangers to be photographed close to the animals in the same frame.
Nick has had solo gallery and museum shows around the world, including New York, London, Berlin, Stockholm, Paris and Los Angeles. All the series are published in book form. Born and raised in London, where he originally studied Painting and Film, Nick now lives in the southern Californian mountains. In 2010, Nick co-founded Big Life Foundation, a non-profit in Kenya/Tanzania employing more than 300 local rangers protecting 1.6 million acres of the Amboseli/Kilimanjaro ecosystem.

On episode 199, Nick discusses, among other things:

• Why he moved to the USA
• His 18 ‘wasted’ years making films
• His first trilogy of projects: On This Earth, A Shadow Falls Across The Ravaged Land
• Having a niche that enabled him to start making a living
• Only taking photographs to exist on prints
• Inherit the Dust
• Going in to each project both ‘excited and scared shitless’
• This Empty World
• The Day May Break
• How he was personally impacted by wild fires at home in California
• The story of Kuda and Sky II
• His level of optimism about climate change

Referenced:

• Martin McDonagh
• Richard Avedon
• Irving Penn
• Arnold Newman
• Greta Thunberg

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“Every project I go into I have no bloody clue whether it’s gonna work. But, that is part of the buzz, by which I mean I like to go into each project excited and scared shitless. I find that challenge to be incredibly stimulating.”

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