This poster rendition of Nick Brandt’s “Elephant on Bare Earth” depicts a black-and-white photograph of an elephant stepping towards us, gazing at us in turn. The ground beneath this giant lies bare, parched for life, cracked — quite akin to the elephant’s own skin, dusty and wrinkled. Deciding not to use either a telephoto or zoom lens in his practice, Brandt’s close proximity to the animal imbues this photograph with a sense of intimacy that is rare and unique to the artist’s photographs, notably his photographs of animals. Even further, it evokes an air laden with not only caution but, interestingly, care between Brandt and the elephant. As with the rest of the artist’s astounding images of wild animals, “Elephant on Bare Earth” makes evident that Brandt is not a wildlife photographer but a portraitist, one that is empathetic to the sentient creatures he photographs, concerned not with documenting their existence but crystallising their ethos in print.

While the English photographer began his career directing music videos, it wasn’t until he filmed Michael Jackson’s Earth Song in Tanzania that he was inspired to pay homage to the animals he saw there. In 2001, Brandt began his ambitious photographic project capturing the destruction of East Africa’s natural magnificence and the disappearance of its animals. Deciding not to use either a telephoto or zoom lens in his practice, Brandt’s close proximity to his subjects imbues his photographs with a rare sense of intimacy, notably in his animal portraits, of which “Elephant Drinking” is the most striking example. Brandt’s experiences photographing African elephants and learning about their poaching prompted the photographer to co-found Big Life Foundation, a non-profit conservation organisation focused on preserving the wildlife and habitats of the Amboseli-Tsavo-Kilimanjaro ecosystem of East Africa through community-based and collaborative strategies. Spending two decades raising awareness on the threats humanity poses to natural and animal life, Brandt now resides in the mountains of Southern California.

Nick Brandt stands as one of Fotografiska’s most popular photographers with four different exhibitions across its museum locations throughout the years. The image rendered in this poster hails from Brandt’s first exhibition at Fotografiska Stockholm in 2012, On This Earth, A Shadow Falls, entitled after his series focused almost exclusively on animal portraits. It’s no surprise that Brandt’s posters have been bestsellers ever since this exhibition too.

Size: 19.69”W x 27.56”H (50x70 cm)

Printed on FSC-certified paper