Frans Lanting. LIFE. A Journey Through Time

In the year 2000, world-renowned wildlife photographer Frans Lanting set out on a personal journey to photograph the evolution of life on Earth. He made pilgrimages to true time capsules, like a remote lagoon in Western Australia, spent time in research collections photographing forms of microscopic life, and even found ways to create visual parallels between the growth of organs in the human body and the patterns seen on the surface of the earth.The resulting volume is a glorious picture book of Planet Earth, depicting the amazing biodiversity that surrounds us all. Lanting’s true gift lies beyond his technical mastery: it is his eye for geometry in the beautiful chaos of nature that allows him to show us the world as it has never been seen before. From crabs to jellyfish, diatoms to vast geological formations, jungles to flowers, monkeys to human embryos, LIFE is a testament to the magical beauty of life in all its forms and is one of Lanting’s most remarkable achievements.

Christine Eckstrom is a writer, editor, and videographer. She is the author of Forgotten Edens and a contributing author of more than 15 books published by the National Geographic Society. Her writing for National Geographic Traveler earned a Lowell Thomas Award for Best Magazine Article on Foreign Travel. The editor of Okavango: Africa’s Last Eden, LIFE: A Journey Through Time, Jungles, Penguin, and Eye to Eye, she has also filmed and produced stories for the National Geographic Channel. Her coverage of chimpanzees in West Africa was featured in the NOVA-National Geographic television special Ape Genius, which received a Peabody Award. Eckstrom and Lanting collaborate on fieldwork and publishing projects from their home base in Santa Cruz, California. Frans Lanting has been hailed as one of the great photographers of our time. His influential work appears in books, magazines, and exhibitions around the world, and has been commissioned frequently by National Geographic, where he has served as a Photographer in Residence. His books have received awards and acclaim: “No photographer turns animals into art more completely than Frans Lanting,” writes The New Yorker. His previous books include Okavango: Africa’s Last Eden, LIFE: A Journey Through Time, Jungles, Penguin, Eye to Eye, Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape, Living Planet, Forgotten Edens, and Madagascar: A World Out of Time. Lanting has received numerous awards for his work as a photographer and conservationist, including top honors from World Press Photo, the Sierra Club’s Ansel Adams Award, the title of BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and Sweden’s Lennart Nilsson Award. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands inducted him as a Knight in the Royal Order of the Golden Ark, that country’s highest conservation honor.