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Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

British, b. 1964

Nick Brandt is an English contemporary photographer who has primarily worked in Africa. The themes in Brandt’s photography often relate to the destructive impact that humans are having on the natural world and how future generations will inherit the remnants of a once-vibrant planet. Brandt prefers not to use zoom lenses because he feels the animals he photographs are best captured up close.

Brandt studied painting and filmmaking at the Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design in his hometown of London. In 1992, he moved to California, where he became a successful music video director, working with artists such as Michael Jackson, Jewel and Moby. In 1995, while filming Michael Jackson’s “Earth Song” video in Tanzania, he was overcome by the beauty of the wild animals. In 2000, he embarked on a project to document the struggles of East African wildlife living in a landscape that is being overrun by exploding human populations and exploited for its natural resources. He filmed animals in the wild using an approach similar to studio portrait photography, reinforcing that animals are sentient creatures not so different from humans.

Brandt has frequently returned to Africa throughout his career. His acclaimed 2004 book, On This Earth, was followed by two more successful books, A Shadow Falls and Across the Ravaged Land, in 2007 and 2011. During work on the last in this trilogy, in 2010, he co-founded the Big Life Foundation, which fights to protect the animals and ecosystems of a large area of Kenya and Tanzania.

In 2019, Brant published This Empty World, bringing to light the ever-increasing destruction of the East African wilderness, where animals can no longer survive in the wake of human progress. It was his first time using color photography. His 2021 book, A Day May Break, captures the impact of climate change and environmental loss on humans and animals.

On 1stDibs, find Nick Brandt’s photography, prints and more.

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Artist: Nick Brandt
Najin and People in Fog, Kenya, 2020
By Nick Brandt
Located in Madrid, ES
Najin and People in the Fog - Najin and Fatu Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya Najin is one of the last two northern white rhinos in the world. When her daughter, Fatu dies, the species...
Category

2010s Contemporary Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper

Bupa and People in Fog, Kenya, 2020
By Nick Brandt
Located in Madrid, ES
Nick Brandt is an English photographer who focuses his work around humanity’s destruction of the natural world. He spent nearly two decades photographing African wildlife and former ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper

Juana and Hernak, Bolivia, 2022
By Nick Brandt
Located in Madrid, ES
JUANA FANEO TAE Juana grows peanuts and beans on about two acres. But the increased incidence of both droughts and floods, extreme heat and then cold, and winds, has dramatically impacted production. Lost harvests, once upon a time extremely rare, have become common for all of the farmers around her. The river by her has also become so contaminated due to mining, that now not even the fish can be eaten safely. That contamination, and the sheer amount of plastic pollution, has resulted in much reduced fish populations. Juana is also a naturopath, using plants from the nearby forest, which is a knowledge passed down through generations. Seventy-seven years old at the time of photographing, she had an energy and radiance of someone much younger, and like all the people in these photographs, was unfailingly gracious and patient. HERNAK Hernak, photographed when he was aged seven, was being sold on Facebook (sigh), when he was a just a baby, after the mother was killed. He was sent to the city of Santa Cruz, where he was kept in a temporary animal shelter. While there, he had surgery for a fecal impaction, and during recovery Hernak opened the stitches. He was found in the morning with his intestines exposed and was rushed to the hospital. Somehow, he survived this. Hernak now lives in a large enclosure on a forested hillside at Senda Verde. Like Tarkus the bear, he seems endlessly curious and energetic. As always, the reasons for the decline in jaguars is multifaceted: habitat destruction from deforestation to an increasing number of wildfires; killing by livestock owners who pay their employees extra to shoot them, to feed an increased demand from China for the fangs of the jaguars. The supposed good luck, fortune, protection, and vitality offered by jaguar teeth—merely an extension of the Chinese belief that Asian tiger parts offer the same benefits—is at the heart of the demand. Offering $100 to $400 per tooth for jaguar fangs, the money to be made is too hard for many to resist. In addition to the skins and skulls, even the testicles are prized in China—as an aphrodisiac. (This is as insane as believing the same about rhino horn.) Chinese companies are going into partnership with the Bolivian government, stripping National Parks of resources, which makes matters worse. With the cooperation of the local prison system, Chinese nationals have created a thriving industry in which inmates are forced to create products such as purses and bags...
Category

2010s Contemporary Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper

John and Mak, Kenia, 2020
By Nick Brandt
Located in Madrid, ES
JOHN AND MAK, ZIMBABWE, 2020 John lives with his wife Margaret, and their nine grandchildren in central Zimbabwe,. They have a small farming plot. Like so many others there, the main challenge is not having access to water. The family walks two kilometers every day to collect water. And because of the prolonged droughts, their small farming plot remains unplanted. It has become difficult to feed everyone, so even in their old age, they survive by doing manual labor jobs. A century ago, there was an estimated 10 million...
Category

2010s Contemporary Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper

Carmen and Zosa, Bolivia, 2022
By Nick Brandt
Located in Madrid, ES
CARMEN CHURA Little by little, they built their house. Carmen worked as a bricklayer’s assistant with her husband, with whom she had two children. They were in the process of adding...
Category

2010s Contemporary Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper

Marisol and Luka, Bolivia, 2022
By Nick Brandt
Located in Madrid, ES
Nick Brandt is an English photographer who focuses his work around humanity’s destruction of the natural world. He spent nearly two decades photographing African wildlife and former ...
Category

2010s Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper

Luis and Hernak, Bolivia, 2022
By Nick Brandt
Located in Madrid, ES
LUIS ZURITA Luis is a teacher at the community school, and also a farmer. In 2021, he lost practically all of his crops due to flooding from overflowing rivers. He remembers that events of this type never used to happen in the community and that weather events have changed enormously. He is aware that these changes and natural disasters are the results of global warming, so he tries to teach this to the children of the community, hoping that it will generate a change in attitude toward these problems. HERNAK Hernak, photographed when he was aged seven, was being sold on Facebook (sigh), when he was just a baby after his mother was killed. He was sent to the city of Santa Cruz, where he was kept in a temporary animal shelter. While there, he had surgery for a faecal impaction, and during recovery, Hernak opened the stitches. He was found in the morning with his intestines exposed and was rushed to the hospital. Somehow, he survived this. Hernak now lives in a large enclosure on a forested hillside at Senda Verde. Like Tarkus the bear, he seems endlessly curious and energetic. As always, the reasons for the decline in jaguars are multifaceted: habitat destruction from deforestation to an increasing number of wildfires; killing by livestock owners who pay their employees extra to shoot them, to feed an increased demand from China for the fangs of the jaguars. The supposed good luck, fortune, protection, and vitality offered by jaguar teeth—merely an extension of the Chinese belief that Asian tiger parts offer the same benefits—is at the heart of the demand. Offering $100 to $400 per tooth for jaguar fangs, the money to be made is too hard for many to resist. In addition to the skins and skulls, even the testicles are prized in China—as an aphrodisiac. (This is as insane as believing the same about rhino horn.) Chinese companies are going into partnership with the Bolivian government, stripping National Parks of resources, which makes matters worse. With the cooperation of the local prison system, Chinese nationals have created a thriving industry in which inmates are forced to create products such as purses and bags...
Category

2010s Contemporary Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper

Sitting Lionesses, Serengeti – Nick Brandt, Lion, Lioness, Africa, Animals, Wild
By Nick Brandt
Located in Zurich, CH
NICK BRANDT (*1966, England) Sitting Lionesses, Serengeti 2002 Platinum print Image 69.5 x 88 cm (27 3/8 x 34 5/8 in.) Sheet 76.5 x 99 cm (30 1/8 x 39 in.) Edition of 25; Ed. no. 16/25 Framed Nick Brandt is a contemporary English photographer. His work focuses on the disappearing natural world. Since 2001, he has photographed the changing African continent and established a style of portrait photography of animals...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Platinum

Lioness Holding Cub in Mouth, Maasai Mara – Nick Brandt, Lion, Africa, Animals
By Nick Brandt
Located in Zurich, CH
NICK BRANDT (*1966, England) Lioness with Cub in Mouth, Amboseli 2012 Platinum print Sheet 71,12 x 88,9 cm (28 x 35 in.) Edition of 15, plus AP's; Ed. no. 2/15 print only Nick Brandt is a contemporary English photographer. His work focuses on the disappearing natural world. Since 2001, he has photographed the changing African continent and established a style of portrait photography of animals in the wild. – Photography, Documentary Photography, Animal, Africa, Wildlife, Nature, Lion Baby...
Category

2010s Contemporary Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Platinum

Elephant Against Sky, Amboseli
By Nick Brandt
Located in Sante Fe, NM
There is perhaps something more profoundly iconic, mythological even, about the animals of East Africa, as opposed to say, the Arctic or South America). And there is also something i...
Category

2010s Contemporary Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Elephant Sails
By Nick Brandt
Located in Sante Fe, NM
There is perhaps something more profoundly iconic, mythological even, about the animals of East Africa, as opposed to say, the Arctic or South America). And there is also something i...
Category

2010s Contemporary Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Elephant Statue
By Nick Brandt
Located in Sante Fe, NM
There is perhaps something more profoundly iconic, mythological even, about the animals of East Africa, as opposed to say, the Arctic or South America). And there is also something i...
Category

2010s Contemporary Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Gorilla on Rock, Parc des Volcans
By Nick Brandt
Located in Sante Fe, NM
There is perhaps something more profoundly iconic, mythological even, about the animals of East Africa, as opposed to say, the Arctic or South America). And there is also something i...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Platinum

Rhino on Lake, Nakuru
By Nick Brandt
Located in Sante Fe, NM
There is perhaps something more profoundly iconic, mythological even, about the animals of East Africa, as opposed to say, the Arctic or South America). And there is also something i...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Platinum

Leopard Staring, Masai Mara
By Nick Brandt
Located in Sante Fe, NM
There is perhaps something more profoundly iconic, mythological even, about the animals of East Africa, as opposed to say, the Arctic or South America). And there is also something i...
Category

2010s Contemporary Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Platinum

Elephant on Bare Earth, Amboseli
By Nick Brandt
Located in Sante Fe, NM
There is perhaps something more profoundly iconic, mythological even, about the animals of East Africa, as opposed to say, the Arctic or South America). And there is also something i...
Category

2010s Contemporary Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Platinum

Sitting Lionesses, Serengeti 2002
By Nick Brandt
Located in Sante Fe, NM
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...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Platinum

Baboons in Profile, Amboseli 2007
By Nick Brandt
Located in Sante Fe, NM
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...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment

Portrait of Lioness Against Rock, Serengeti 2007
By Nick Brandt
Located in Sante Fe, NM
There is perhaps something more profoundly iconic, mythological even, about the animals of East Africa, as opposed to say, the Arctic or South America). And there is also something i...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Platinum

Lion Before Storm II – Sitting Profile, Maasai Mara
By Nick Brandt
Located in Sante Fe, NM
Very few photographers have ever really considered the photography of wildlife, as distinctly opposed to the genre of Wildlife Photography, as an art form. The emphasis has generally...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Nick Brandt Portrait Photography

Materials

Platinum

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Nick Brandt portrait photography for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Nick Brandt portrait photography available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Nick Brandt in platinum print, archival paper, paper and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 21st century and contemporary and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Nick Brandt portrait photography, so small editions measuring 25 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Tim Platt, Jonathan Becker, and David Bailey. Nick Brandt portrait photography prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $4,993 and tops out at $66,843, while the average work can sell for $5,030.
Questions About Nick Brandt Portrait Photography
  • 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022
    Nick Brandt is a professional photographer and well-known for his powerful black and white photography. His themes center around the disappearing natural world and how mankind is destroying it. Brandt has also created three books featuring his photographs and is the co-founder of Big Life Foundation, a group dedicated to protecting animals and the ecosystem of a large area of Kenya and Tanzania. On 1stDibs, find a variety of original artwork from some of the world’s top artists.
  • 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022
    Nick Brandt has used a number of different types of film and cameras over the course of his career. He’s been known to shoot some of his projects with medium-format black and white film. On 1stDibs, shop a collection of Nick Brandt photography from some of the world’s top sellers.

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