Exhibit in Montier-En-Der, France

White Wolf Testing Water

From November 15-18th, 2012 Jim will be the honorary “Patron” at the Festiphoto-Montier which typically draws 45,000 attendees in Montier-En-Der, France.

Jim’s theme for the exhibit is Wolves and Prairies as that is where he feels he has made the most impact in nature preservation. The images chosen for the show represent some of his best work on the subjects and will hang alongside the work of Ansel Adams.  Jim and Ansel were chosen as two photographers whose work has made a significant contribution to nature preservation.

"Ansel Adams is considered America's best know artist by some and I am honored to be in the same space with him here." -Jim Brandenburg

Ansel Adams 
Photo by ©Mimi Jacobs

Snake River, Grand Tetons 1942. Taken by Ansel Adams for the Dept of the Interior.

Ansel Adams, photographing in Yosemite National Park from atop his car about 1942.  Courtesy of the Cedric Wright Family.

Jim's Artist Statement

Around the world, photography is used as a means to record personal or family events --simple as that. Aesthetics not being a priority, the family camera is mostly used to record a moment to be remembered. Millions of snapshots are casually made everyday. Most are looked at a few times among family and friends and then forgotten. Precious few of those casual snaps survive the ages, but those that do are cherished.

Then there is the professional side of photography, where the camera is used to report on the state of man and nature’s condition. Often, it goes beyond a mere profession and can become one’s life mission. Some hope that their reportage will make a difference in the world. That is the world I have found myself in for my whole adult life -- 50 years of a deliberate and not-so-casual expression of my feelings about the natural world through my photography.

Two subjects have nearly dominated my half-century of photographic work. The highly persecuted wild wolf population, and the once vast, but now nearly vanished American native prairie both captured my passion at an early age. Like the great French combat war photographers that shared their battlefield images with the public to impress and help change attitudes, I have attempted the same – without the physical dangers of the military battlefield.

Born on the treeless and almost completely cultivated Great Plains of America, I realized the story that needed to be told; that only half of one percent of native tall-grass prairie land had not been plowed under and destroyed. This passion and subsequent picture story is what opened the door for me to the great magazines of the world like National Geographic.

With the opportunity at the Geographic, I decided to take on a similarly sad story in the animal realm. I attempted to give voice to the wolf, which I thought was the least understood and perhaps the most persecuted animal in our history of animal relationships.

One never knows if this life’s work has or will make a difference. We can only hope and work toward making that difference a reality. 

Meadowlark

Wolf Harmony - Ellesmere Island

Bison Looking for New Pasture

Arctic Wolf - Ellesmere Island

Prairie Coneflowers

Rattlesnake & Cactus

Alpha Pair Eats First

Blue Mounds Bison

Brother Wolf