Into Africa by Frans Lanting is a mosaic of images and experiences. It includes intimate portraits of individual animals, insights into extraordinary places, and commentary on the challenge of safeguarding both for the future.
Africa is changing rapidly, yet in many places the continent still provides a safe haven for wildlife; nowhere else on Earth has so much unspoiled nature survived.
Throughout his career, Frans Lanting has championed the natural world. More than twenty years earlier, he joined forces with WWF and served on the organization’s board to help advance its global conservation goals.
The photographs in this book let us see Africa’s magnificent natural beauty through Lanting’s eyes.
His aim as a photographer, he says, is “to get beyond the feathers, fur, and scales. I prefer to get under the skin. It does not matter whether I am looking at a large elephant or a tiny tree frog. I want to get as close as possible, to stand face to face with them.”
Frans Lanting is not distracted by the differences between species. Instead, he marvels at their similarities and at the bond connecting all living things. He sees himself as an animal, albeit one blessed with reason: a being aware of the wondrous coherence of the natural world and morally compelled to show our planet’s needs at a time when plant and animal species face extinction at an ever-increasing rate.
“No photographer turns animals into art quite like Frans Lanting.”
The New Yorker
Lanting’s photographs reveal some of the world’s most famous landscapes, from the sweeping vistas of the Serengeti and the watery wilderness of the Okavango Delta to Namibia’s enchanting deserts, Congo’s dizzying jungle, and the exotic island of Madagascar.
Over many journeys during the preceding thirty years, Lanting portrayed remarkable African animals in his own distinctive way — elephants, rhinos, giraffes, lions, leopards, and cheetahs — as well as endangered primates including gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and lemurs. Together with his personal stories, the work forms a spectacular tribute to wildlife and the natural areas on which it depends.
The book is based on the successful exhibitionInto Africa,created by the National Geographic Society in partnership with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and supported by the World Wildlife Fund.
Into Africa — Frans Lanting (Dutch-language edition)
Pages: 224
Price: € 34.95
Publisher: Fontaine Uitgevers B.V. National Geographic
ISBN: 9789059568013
Language: Dutch. This article refers to the Dutch-language edition.
