Nick Brandt - Fine Art Photography by Nick Brandt - Africa - Wildlife

About Nick Brandt

Nick's exquisite photographs arouse deep emotions. They inspire a sense of awe at the beauty of creation and the sacredness of life. It's almost impossible to look through his work without sensing the
personalities of the beings whom he has photographed.

JANE GOODALL (Author, Conservationist, Primatologist, UN Messenger of Peace)

The photographs of Nick Brandt are both beautiful and haunting. When I first saw them, I grew very quiet, because Brandt’s reverence for his
subjects was so immediately clear.... You are about to enter a world of
the imagination where all the animals are real, both fragile and full
of grace.

ALICE SEBOLD (Author of "The Lovely Bones")

Nick Brandt's photographs of African animals and landscapes are both epic and iconic. It's a vision of Africa that we have not seen before.

MARY ELLEN MARK (Photographer ("American Odyssey 1963-1999"/ "Twins" / "Indian Circus" / "Streetwise")

Nick captures the hidden magic of the wild things he photographs, so
stunning and spiritual as to take the breath away.

KUKI GALLMANN (Author of “I Dreamed of Africa”)

Nick Brandt's photography is beautiful and elegaic in a classic way, and also "strange" in the best sense; those who know East Africa must grieve to think that our own species could be so greedy and unwise as to let such magnificent creatures disappear.

PETER MATTHIESSEN (Author of "At Play in the Fields of the Lord", "The Tree Where Man Was Born", "The Snow Leopard")

Elegy to a Vanishing World

Few photographers have ever considered the photography of wild animals, as distinctly opposed to the genre of Wildlife Photography, as an art form. The emphasis has generally been on capturing the drama of wild animals IN ACTION, on capturing that dramatic single moment, as opposed to simply animals in the state of BEING.

I’ve always thought this something of a wasted opportunity. The wild animals of Africa lend themselves to photographs that extend aesthetically beyond the norm of 35mm-color telephoto wildlife photography. And so it is, that in my own way, I would like to yank the subject matter of wildlife into the arena of fine art photography. To take photographs that transcend what has been a largely documentative genre.

Aside from using certain impractical photographic techniques, there’s one thing I do whilst shooting that I believe makes a big difference :

I get extremely close to these very wild animals, often within a few feet of them. I don't use telephoto lenses. This is because I want to see as much of the sky and landscape as possible--to see the animals within the context of their environment. That way, the photos become as much about the atmosphere of the place as the animals. And being that close to the animals, I get a real sense of intimate connection to them, to the specific animal in front of me. Sometimes a deliberate feeling that they’re almost presenting themselves for a studio portrait.

Why the animals of Africa in particular? And more particularly still, East Africa?

There is perhaps something more profoundly iconic, mythical, mythological even, about the animals of East Africa, as opposed to say, the Arctic or South America. There is also something deeply, emotionally stirring and affecting about the plains of Africa - the vast green rolling plains punctuated by the graphically perfect acacia trees.

My images are unashamedly idyllic and romantic, a kind of enchanted Africa. They’re my elegy to a world that is steadily, tragically vanishing.

Nick Brandt - Fine Art Photography news

FORTHCOMING EXHIBITIONS

September 2005
Atlas Gallery
London, England

July 8 - September 10, 2005
Photo-Eye Gallery
Santa Fe, New Mexico

July 7 - August 27, 2005
Stephen Cohen Gallery
Los Angeles, California

March 4 - 25, 2005
Fong/Heimerdinger Gallery
San Francisco, California

November 16, 2004 - February 15, 2005
Galerie 206
Berlin, Germany

September 3 - October 15, 2004
CameraWork Gallery
Hamburg, Germany

FORTHCOMING PHOTOGRAPHIC BOOK

ON THIS EARTH : to be published by Chronicle Books, Fall 2005
Forewords by Jane Goodall and Alice Sebold

MAGAZINE ARTICLES

Camera Arts, October/November 2004 Issue
portfolio of seven images, interview and cover

REPRESENTATION U.S.A

DEBRA HEIMERDINGER FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHS
by appointment at Fong/Heimerdinger Gallery
The Phelan Building, Suite 258
760 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
415 . 566 . 1910

PHOTO-EYE GALLERY
370 Garcia Street
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505 . 988 . 5159

STEPHEN COHEN GALLERY
7358 Beverly Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323 . 937 . 5525

REPRESENTATION EUROPE

CAMERAWORK
Kanstrasse 149
10623 Berlin
+49 30 31 50 47 83
Contact : Ute Hartjen

ATLAS GALLERY
49 Dorset Street
London W1U 7NF
+44 207 224 4192