In 2001, Nick Brandt embarked on an ambitious photographic project, a trilogy of books memorializing the vanishing natural grandeur of East Africa. Focusing on some of the world's last great populations of large mammals--elephants, giraffes, lions, gorillas, and their kin--he created two of the new century's most influential photographic books: On This Earth (2005) and A Shadow Falls (2009). His iconic portraits of these majestic animals express an empathy usually reserved for human subjects. The magisterial On This Earth, A Shadow Falls collects the most memorable images from Brandt's first two books, along with their accompanying essays. A testament to the bookmaker's craft, it is the first volume on Brandt's work to capture the superb quality of his remarkable, large-format prints, which are notable for their velvety blacks and tonal subtleties.