Environmental degradation in East Africa continues at a rate that has effectively outpaced the ability of Kenya’s great beasts to survive. “Evidence suggests that if poaching persists at this level, specific local African elephant populations could disappear in the next decade,” according to a recent report in the UN Chronicle. “Weak governance and corruption have exacerbated the poaching crisis,” the paper continues. “This crisis, if left unchecked, will have a profound effect on regional biodiversity and the economy.” [more] Above: Wasteland with Lion, 2015; © Nick Brandt 

Photographer Nick Brandt, best known for his intimate depictions of the animals and sweeping landscapes of East Africa, has spent his career photographing and responding to the fragile ecosystem and increasing urbanization of Africa's national parks and the surrounding areas. On a recent trip to Kenya, he found that urban sprawl, factories and toxic waste dumps have invaded savannahs where displaced animals roamed just a few years ago. To bring attention to the catastrophic effects brought on by rampant development, his new series visually returns the stately elephants, rhinos and lions he previously photographed to their now despoiled habitats.

Wasteland with Rhinos, 2015; © Nick Brandt 

Brandt selected a series of previously unpublished portraits, had them printed life-sized and mounted onto aluminum panels. These heavily framed prints were then erected in industrial wastelands of East Africa so dystopic as to belie the notion that trees and grass once grew there. He worried that he might be exaggerating his concerns, but has said that the situation was much worse than what he imagined. In moving the panels to various sites, the wear and tear resulted in the degradation of the print surfaces, which confers an apocalyptic effect on the panoramic images that make up the series, Inherit the Dust.

Peter Matthiessen, author of At Play in the Fields of the Lord, said, “Nick Brandt's photography is beautiful and elegiac 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.”

An exhibition of Inherit the Dust opens Thursday, March 10 at Edwynn Houk Gallery, with a reception for the artist from 6 to 8 pm. 745 Fifth Avenue, 4th floor, NY, NY.
Sixty-eight photograph from the series are collected in a book of the same title, published by Edwynn Houk Editions, and printed tri-tone.
Tonight, Brandt will appear in conversation with Andrew Revkin at Strand Bookstore, at 7 pm. 828 Broadway, NY, NY. Info

Road with Elephant, 2014; © Nick Brandt  Brandt 

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