While the world is focused on the South African World Cup, Bernheimer takes the opportunity to explore the African landscape and its habitants. The showcase offers two different vantage points on the nature and the living environment of the African continent. While Nick Brandt with his unique portrait style focuses on African animals (many of them endangered species) in the series A Shadow Falls, Silke Lauffs with her panoramic camera offers a marvellous interpretation of the South African landscape and presents us with a seemingly unchanging dream world.
Born in Britain and living in the US, Nick Brandt is considered as one of the most noteworthy animal photographers. His black and white sepia toned portraits precisely record all characteristics and traits and present the animal as a personality in their environment. His pictures are unusual and fascinating, as if the beast just had posed for the camera. Extraordinarily, his photographs are shot without any type of zoom or telescopic lens. Instead, Nick observes the nature and its beasts, often for days, for the perfect moment when he finally triggers the camera.
In her series “South African Landscapes”, the German photographer Silke Lauffs presents fairyland sceneries and dramatic panoramas. Through their panoramic format her pictures have a strong horizontal accent. Often the sky and the background are equally present in the image: the sky to induce mood and the scene to narrate a story. The pictures are most often shot in the early morning and don’t usually include human beings. They evoke a longing and partly doleful sentiment as if the countryside has just awoken.

Africa. Nick Brandt and Silke Lauffs
9 July 2010 - 7 August 2010
Bernheimer Fine Old Masters, Munich

Nick Brandt, Rhinos in lake Lake, Nakuru 2007.
Edition of 25
Fine Art Print
55 x 70 cm