The Day May Break: Chapter Two, Photographs from Bolivia
£55.00
Published by Hatje Cantz March 2023
Essays by Nick Brandt and Daniel Sherrell
In stock
The Day May Break is an ongoing global series portraying people and animals that have been impacted by environmental degradation and destruction. Chapter Two was photographed in Bolivia in 2022.
The people in the photos have all been badly affected by climate change, from extreme droughts to floods that destroyed their homes and livelihoods. The photographs were taken at La Senda Verde Animal Sanctuary where the animals live are almost all long-term rescues, victims of everything from habitat destruction to wildlife trafficking. These animals can never be released back into the wild. As a result, they are mostly habituated to humans, and so it was safe for strangers to be close to them, photographed in the same frame at the same time.
The fog is symbolic of a natural world now rapidly fading from view. Created by fog machines on location, it is also an echo of the smoke from wildfires, intensified by climate change, devastating so much of the planet. However, in spite of their loss, these people and animals are the survivors. And therein lies hope and possibility.
“These are cautionary tales of tenuous survival, and while the pictures themselves are fascinating because of how strange it is to think of the animals and people calmly sharing personal space, it should not be happening and it feels both magical and ominous, hopeful and unsettling. At heart, the question this series poses is whether the day will break like sunrise, or like glass. For as gorgeous, rich and operatic as the images are, this is not an Edenic vision of coexistence, it’s an urgent plea for taking action.” — Shana Nys Dambrot, L.A. Weekly