By Nick Br, t
132 pages; Abrams

From its transcendent opening view of an elephant passing through a cathedral of trees to its apocalyptic vision of an abandoned ostrich egg on a darkening plain, Nick Brandt's A Shadow Falls portrays a wild East African landscape that—thanks to poachers and other interlopers—may soon be no more. Like ethicist Peter Singer, whose essay appears in these pages along with an appreciation by photography critic Vicki Goldberg, Brandt is a passionate animal rights advocate. What argument could be stronger or more poetic than a sepia-toned panorama of giraffes punctuating an evening sky? Or a portrait of lions in a muscular show of affection? Brandt, who has no use for telephoto lenses, closes in on the perfect shot with the patience of a predator—or an artist so in love with his subjects he could gaze until the end of time.

— Cathleen Medwick