across the ravaged land

all photographs by nick brandt

across the ravaged land is the third series from photographer nick brandt's effort to capture the vanishing world & changing landscape of east africa.  the images above show the petrified creatures that washed up along the shoreline of lake natron in northern tanzania.  brandt found them on the shoreline & then placed them in "living" positions - in a way reanimating them. 

no one is sure exactly how they die - it appears that the extreme reflective nature of the lake's surface confuses them & the birds crash into the water.  the water has an extremely high soda & salt content causing the animals to calcify, perfectly preserving them as they dry.

this is not the only focus in the book - brandt photographed animals that are disappearing as they are being both aggressively poached or crowded out by a growing population.  "this further sense of foreboding, this greater level of melancholy on my part, informs the way that i photograph the animals in this book as opposed to the previous two."

the work is on display at fahey/klein in los angeles through november 2, 2013.