“A gentle soul like most elephants, he was so relaxed that in 2007, he allowed me to come within a few feet of him to take his portrait.”

—Nick Brandt

In 2007, Nick Brandt photographed this monumental, close-up portrait of Igor the elephant, directly facing the viewer, against the breath-taking landscape of Amboseli National Park. Presented full-length in nuanced monochrome, Brandt has distilled the majestic dignity and serenity of his subject. As seen in this masterwork, Brandt balances his ongoing project to raise awareness of the endangered natural world with an epic vision of natural beauty. ‘I hope that maybe you will see these animals, these non-humans, in the way that I do – as not so very different from us’, urges the artist. Elephant Drinking, Amboseli has graced the cover of the artist’s monographs A Shadow Falls (2009) and On This Earth, A Shadow Falls (2014).