Wild Life Photography by Nick Brandt..

Nick Brandt is one of those photographers who is, quite simply, impossible to pin down. Born in England, he moved to California where he became a high profile maker of music videos for stars such as Michael Jackson. It was actually while directing the video  for Michael Jackson's Earth Song in Tanzania in 1996 that he first began his love affair with Africa. Having enjoyed a deep connection with animals since childhood, and sharing his Californian home with a menagerie of pets, it was the beautiful and graceful African creatures and the wild, sweeping landscape they inhabit that particularly appealed to Nick.

Around five years ago, he decided to leave behind the glamour of the music business to concentrate on becoming a photographer. He made his mind up from the outset, however, that he was not going to  attempt to emulate the litany of wildlife photographers who had found themselves drawn to this charismatic continent, but that  he would approach his Chosen subject in a highly individual manner.

The result was a decision to tackle wildlife in a way that was almost diametrically opposite to the norm: using a black & white fine art style, a medium-format camera and a portrait or wide-angle lens. In short, Nick set about photographing his subjects almost as though they were human, and he himself insists that he is  not a wildlife photographer at all in the conventional sense of the word.