Africa is home to many wild animals. These animals attract foreign investments in countries where they are found in the continent.
Tourists all over the world, travel to catch a glimpse of these animals. Some foreign nationals have even invested in the tourism industry, boosting economic development of some African countries; especially in East Africa, where the tourism industry is big business.
In Kenya for example, tourism is the second largest source of foreign exchange revenue in the country, after agriculture. Wild animals contribute significantly to the attraction of visitors in the country.
However, a major concern for environmentalists recently, is the rate at which the continent is losing its wild animals. Poaching has contributed significantly to the depopulation of Africa’s wild animals. It has now become a worldwide problem, with many governments around the world promising to help Africa fight poaching to sustain its wildlife population.
But as the attention is shifted to poaching, there is another factor that is also contributing to the decrease of wild animals in Africa. This hidden factor that has eluded many countries in Africa has now been uncovered by the British photographer, Nick Brandt in his new series Inherit the Dust.
Brandt first started photographing wild animals in East Africa in the year 2000. He produced many magnificent images of wild animals from Africa for many Western magazines and media outlets. His works have even contributed to the flow of tourists to Africa to see some of the animals he has now been capturing.
Recently, Mr Brandt visited the region he used to work. To his shock, some of the areas where he used to capture wild animals comfortably moving about, have been transformed completely. The animals are no longer there, their habitats converted into something else. Probably, something more important than wild animals.
Brandt was sad, but decided to tell this new story in a more creative way. He therefore decided to work on the series titled Inherit the Dust. He placed life-size portraits of wild animals in their former habitats to show how these animals used to live in these areas; but as a result of human activities, the animals have been displaced.
With a team of about 20 crew members, Mr Brandt placed life-size photos of giraffes, elephants and other animals in their former stomping grounds. These places today have become factories, quarries and garbage dumps.
The experienced photographer then captured the resulting landscape, often with gray skies overhead, creating an evocative portrait of change and loss.
The entire shooting of the photos took around four months to complete. Mr Brandt admitted that when he started to shoot the photos initially, local residents did not understand why he was doing it. But later, the locals understood what he wanted to communicate to the rest of the world. They understood that human activities have greatly affected the animals.
“They’ve got way, way more important stuff to think about than some crazy white dude sticking a giant panel of an elephant on a dump site. I wanted [the feeling] that these panels were just ghosts in the landscape. It’s really important to understand that it’s not just the animals that are the victims of environmental devastation. Human beings are, too,” Wall Street Journal quoted Brandt as saying.
Brandt and his team have finished producing the series. Inherit the Dust is currently at the Edwynn Houk Gallery in New York City. It is open for public viewing until April 30. After New York, it will then travel to Los Angeles, and other cities outside the United States. If you are fortunate to live in these areas, try and see the remaining photos for yourself. Spread the news of how human activities can have a negative effect on the environment.
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