Paloma Amezcua
Nick Brandt, "Wasteland with Elephant"
2015
I chose this image because of its powerful message and the emotional impact it had on me. In the photograph, a life-size portrait of an elephant that lived in that very location only seven years before sits among piles of trash that were created as a result of human intervention. As one looks at the creature's face, it almost seems as if the battle-scarred elephant, too, is gazing sadly upon the wasteland that was once its home. The artist's use of black and white gives the scene an even more bleak and miserable appearance. By juxtaposing this hideous landscape with what it used to be, this shocking, heartbreaking photograph serves as a reminder that the natural world is vanishing little by little every day and that it might soon be gone if we don't do more to protect and preserve it. If this destruction continues, photographs like this elephant portrait may be all we'll have left of nature's most beautiful creatures.
