Shadow Falls Over Africa

Nick Brandt’s stark and soulful portraits are an intimate glimpse at a world under siege. A mournful ranger holds poached ivory tusks, an abandoned ostrich eggs sits on a stretch of parched earth and a small herd of elephants surrounds a skull. Mr. Brandt has been photographing the threatened wildlife of Kenya and Tanzania for more than a decade and has released his work in two volumes: “On This Earth” (2005) and “A Shadow Falls” (2009). He’s now halfway through shooting the final volume, and a selection of that new work opens at the Fotografiska Museum in Stockholm on Oct. 6. Over the years, his photographs have taken on an intentionally darker tone to reflect increasing pressures on the region, mainly from demand by Asian markets. Raw ivory now fetches up to $800 per kilogram and rhino horn is worth more per ounce than gold dust, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Elephants that Mr. Brandt photographed just a few years ago have already been killed.