Nick Brandt

Contact: contact@faheykleingallery.com                                                                             

Nick Brandt: The Day May Break

September 9 through October 30, 2021

Exhibition Reception - September 16th, 7 – 9pm

The Fahey/Klein Gallery is pleased to present Nick Brandt: The Day May Break, an exhibition of new works, made in 2020, as part of the first in a global series of images portraying people and animals that have been impacted by environmental degradation and destruction.

The photographs from The Day May Break were taken at five sanctuaries & conservancies in Kenya and Zimbabwe. The animals featured in this series are almost all long-term rescues, victims of everything from the poaching of their parents, to habitat destruction and poisoning. The human subjects have all been badly affected by climate change - some displaced by cyclones that destroyed their homes, others displaced and impoverished by years-long severe droughts. Both subjects share the same space and are shot together in the same frame - at the same time. The images from The Day May Break, as with all of Brandt’s works, are an investigation into and a plea for the conservation of the natural world.

“… the times in which we now live are no longer about proverbial canaries in coal mines; we are in the middle of a liminal epoch that is groaning to the soundtrack of a most unsettled earth.”

- Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, essay excerpt from The Day May Break.

In the works on display both animal and human subjects from Brandt’s exhibition are displaced “veterans of the planet’s unruly rumblings.” Crafted using light and fog, there is a nearly disorienting visual aesthetic. The images portray a quiet, almost enchanted, sense of tragedy and loss. However, in spite of their loss, these people and animals are the survivors. And therein lies possibility and hope.

“The Day May Break . . . and the world may shatter.

Or perhaps . . . The Day May Break . . . and the dawn still come.

Humanity’s choice. Our choice.”

- Nick Brandt, essay excerpt from The Day May Break.

Born in England, Nick Brandt studied film and painting at St. Martin’s School of Art in London. He turned to photography in 2001 with his trilogy On This Earth, A Shadow Falls, Across the Ravaged Land – to be followed up by Inherit the Dust and This Empty World. Nick Brandt co-founded Big Life Foundation with one of the most respected conservationists in East Africa, Richard Bonham.

The new book, The Day May Break (Hatje Cantz, 2021; 168 pages) contains 60 photographs and essays by authors Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor and Percival Everett, along with an essay by Nick Brandt - and is available for purchase through the gallery (while supplies last) for $65.

Press Photographs & Press Materials Are Available on Request