Nick Brandt fell in love with the wild life and natural beauty of Africa when he travelled to Tanzania in 1995 to direct Michael Jackson’s music video ‘Earth Song’. Since then, the award-winning filmmaker has turned to photography to document and express his feelings about the vanishing grandeur of East Africa.

In 2001, he began a project to create a trilogy of photographic books titled, ‘On This Earth’, ‘A Shadow Falls’ and ‘Across the Ravaged Land’ featuring intimate portraits of wild animals in their natural habitats. When read together the titles form a sentence that conveys his concerns about a paradise that is being rapidly destroyed by the actions of human beings.

Brandt has exhibited his work at prestigious museums and galleries across the world to raise awareness about the issue; and he has cofounded Big Life Foundation, a non-profit organisation devoted to protecting the wildlife and ecosystems of East Africa.

In his first solo exhibition in Dubai, Inherit the Dust, Brandt is exhibiting a selection of photographs from his latest book of the same name. In this series, the artist has used a unique method to draw attention to the fragile ecosystem and rapid urbanisation of Africa’s natural parks and sweeping landscapes. He shot the pictures on locations such as quarries, factories and underpasses. But in each location, he erected a panel carrying a life-size portrait of a wild animal, thus placing animals that once roamed there as a ghostlike presence in the vast urban sprawl that has encroached on their natural habitat.

His haunting black and white, large scale photographs show elephants, rhinoceroses, apes and lions, seemingly wandering through a wasteland of destruction and despair, while the people around them go about their everyday struggle to survive, quite oblivious to the degradation of the landscape, and the presence of the animals. The poignant images speak not just about the fate of the animals, but also about the negative impact of rapid urbanisation, and environmental destruction on the lives of these human beings.

We spoke to Brandt about his mission as a photographer. Excerpts:

What is the motivation behind your projects in Africa?

Africa is one of the few places left in this world where you can still see many species of wild animals roaming freely in their natural habitats. My first experience of that was so emotional and captivating, that I felt I had to express my feelings about the animals and their habitats which are disappearing due to the destructive hand of man. I found photography to be the best medium for this. I want each of my photographs to be a wake-up call to the whole world, sending a strong message that these ecological and social problems extend beyond East Africa and must be addressed globally.

What is the concept behind Inherit the Dust?

My earlier trilogy charts the progression from paradise to a stark reality. But the devastation in East Africa is occurring at such a shocking speed that I felt I had to make work that addresses more specifically the impact of our growing population on the environment. The wildlife photographs I have used in this project are unpublished images taken during previous visits. I blew them up to life size, glued them onto aluminium panels, and placed them in locations where these animals once roamed, and no longer do. I want to show that while the animals have been reduced to ghosts, the humans who now inhabit these landscapes are also victims of environmental destruction; and if we continue on this path we will leave only the sad remnants of a once-vibrant living planet for future generations. They will only inherit the dust.

Why did you not use digital technology to insert the animals in these panoramas?

It took a lot of effort and money to produce the life-size prints, carry the 30-feet long panels to the locations, and erect them in the extremely hot weather. But I did it because I wanted to have a seamless, organic integration between the animals and the environment, and the chance to capture how people responded to the animals. No amount of digital manipulation could have been as good as the unexpected things that happen in a live shoot.

What kind of things?

For example, in Underpass With Elephants, there were several homeless people in the area. When we placed the panel in the underpass, the elephants looked so trapped between the giant concrete pillars of the underpass, and the matriarch seemed to be looking sympathetically at the humans who had also been rendered homeless. I had not planned it, but it is ironic to see homeless children sniffing glue around the underpass, while in the background is a billboard featuring a well-to-do African man leaning back in his garden chair, with the tag line: lean back, your life is on track. While we were shooting this image, the people there ignored the animals, but one child wandered into the frame and began touching the elephants with a stick. The fact that only the child could see the ghosts reminds us that we are all born with an instinctive connection to nature, which often gets lost later in life. Similarly, in the photograph with the zebra, the train which entered the frame has zebra-like stripes painted on the engine; and the machinery in Quarry with Giraffe, looks almost like the animal. These unplanned elements added new layers to the narrative.

How did you select the images for each location?

These are images I did not publish for various reasons, but they fitted perfectly in these locations. For example, I had not released the picture of a giraffe looking over the plains because it was taken from behind. But in the setting of a huge quarry, the giraffe appears to be looking sadly at his former home, now stripped bare. Similarly, I had rejected the photo of the chimp in Alleyway with Chimpanzee because due to his bowed head there was no connect with viewers. But in this context, he appears to be lamenting the loss of a world he once knew.

Why do you prefer to shoot with film, and in black and white?

It was impractical and expensive to use film in this project because each panorama was constructed out of 6x7cm negatives stitched together digitally. But I always shoot with medium format film because I like the mistakes and the glorious surprises created by the magical interaction of light and film negative. I feel black and white imbues the images with a certain mystery, and timelessness, giving the feeling that these animals belong to a past era.

How do you respond to questions about a westerner preaching to Africans?

Africans are justified in feeling that Western societies, who destroyed their own environment centuries ago for economic expansion, have no right to deny them economic development. But they must look at the bigger picture, which is that Africa can be a global superpower in nature tourism because it has this extraordinary, precious wildlife and natural landscape that nobody else has. They should understand that their survival depends on the survival of the animals and their natural habitats, and that the environment and economic benefit can go hand in hand through initiatives such as ecotourism, which is a long-term sustainable source of income. Africans should not let the catastrophically bad decisions of the western world to get in the way of doing what is good and right for the animals, for the people, and for the whole planet. I also hope that my photographs and books will encourage politicians, industrialists and other powerful decision makers globally, to think more carefully about these issues. And I wish that children will see these images and connect with the message.

How does the Big Life Foundation help in conserving Africa’s wildlife and ecosystems?

I established this non-profit organisation in 2010 in the Amboseli nature reserve straddling Kenya and Tanzania, as an urgent response to the escalation in poaching. It is funded by generous donations from my collectors, mainly in the US. It is headed by renowned conservationist Richard Bonham, and we have 300 well-equipped rangers manning 40 newly built outposts throughout the two-million-acre area. The Foundation is the biggest corporate employer in the region, and we have succeeded in almost eliminating poaching because we have support from the local communities who understand that conservation benefits them.

Jyoti Kalsi is an arts-enthusiast based in Dubai.

Inherit the Dust will run at Custot Gallery Dubai, in Alserkal Avenue, Al Quoz until February 28.