There's a photograph of two children on a seesaw. Nothing unusual, except they're sitting six metres underwater off Fiji, perfectly still, hair floating upward, performing an everyday gesture where human life cannot be sustained. For photographers, the immediate question isn't what it means (that's clear), but how Nick Brandt made it happen.
The answer reveals everything about Brandt's approach. In stark contrast to the way photojournalists work (capturing events as they unfold), the Oxford-born photographer stages elaborate scenes requiring months to plan and weeks to execute. As a result, 67 large-format images from his four-chapter series The Day May Break are being shown together for the first time at Gallerie d'Italia in Turin from 18 March to 6 September 2026.
