Eye to Eye is the classic personal portfolio by master photographer Frans Lanting, the award-winning photographer and naturalist who has set the standards for a whole generation of wildlife photographers. The book gathers more than 140 photographs, made over a period of 20 years and reveals Lanting’s unique personal aesthetic and the startling new perspective it offers on our fellow species on earth.The book’s exquisite images are accompanied by personal stories and observations from a lifetime of working with wild animals around the world. “Living with albatrosses on a small island in the Pacific Ocean, roaming with a troop of lemurs through a forest in Madagascar—those were times when I learned to see the world through other eyes,” Lanting says. “But what my eyes seek in these encounters is not just the beauty traditionally revered by wildlife photographers,” he writes. “The perfection I seek in my photographic compositions is a means to show the strength and dignity of animals in nature.”
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.
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.
