"A Shadow Falls" is a continuation of Nick Brandt’s ongoing effort to capture wildlife in East Africa and raise awareness that the most exotic animals on Earth are threatened with extinction. Although these large scale archival prints capture the massive scale of elephants, giraffes, lions, and herds of zebras, the scale also makes it apparent that the animals are dwarfed by the surrounding landscape, which is both vast and barren. It is only through Brandt’s lens that we can witness intimate moments shared by a lion and his mate, the affection between two giraffes who delicately wrap their necks in an embrace, and a lioness who feeds her cub while cautiously standing guard.
Members of the animal kingdom who once seemed a threat appear delicate and kind creatures who are merely trying to survive. A photograph taken from a high vantage point reveals hundreds of thousands of zebras and bison gathering at a riverbank, waiting to cross. The chaos of the gathering herd quickly restores order as the animals proceed single file into the water and swiftly make it to the other side, their path forming an arc. The threat of extinction is the foreboding message of “A Shadow Falls.” A lion with a thick mane and piercing eyes waits beneath a splintered tree that has uprooted and is now growing sideways. The once king of the jungle has no one to protect and nothing to hunt. |
A. Moret