"I wondered whether it might be possible to tell the story of life on Earth from its earliest beginnings."
By Frans Lanting
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We are living in an extraordinary time: Our knowledge about life on Earth is growing rapidly through advances in scientific disciplines ranging from microbiology to paleontology, from geology to astrobiology. The integration of that knowledge is increasing our understanding about the interconnected nature of life, and the role it plays as a whole in influencing the conditions that make this planet hospitable to life. That realization has inspired my work.
This book is a synthesis of my career. I started out as a wildlife photographer pursuing animals one at a time. As I learned more about their lives,my view grew to include their habitats, and animals became ambassadors for ecosystems. Biodiversity superseded ecosystems as a concept for understanding nature as a network made up of untold numbers of species. Yet every one of those living organisms has a unique origin in time, and that is the dimension I have attempted to convey in this book. It is humbling to imagine the immensity of time covered by the history of life on Earth. But that is what I plunged into, with curiosity and wonder. And I emerged from this journey with a different sense of myself in time. Life follows in the wake of Eye to Eye, which expressed the kinship of all animal life, and Jungles, which explored the complexities of nature in the tropics. I hope this book will contribute to bridging the gap between a naturalist's appreciation for nature and a scientist's understanding of life. It is my tribute to the kinship and continuity of all life on Earth.
Photographs and Text (c) 2006 Frans Lanting, Santa Cruz, California
Page 1 2
Page 1 2
We are living in an extraordinary time: Our knowledge about life on Earth is growing rapidly through advances in scientific disciplines ranging from microbiology to paleontology, from geology to astrobiology. The integration of that knowledge is increasing our understanding about the interconnected nature of life, and the role it plays as a whole in influencing the conditions that make this planet hospitable to life. That realization has inspired my work.
This book is a synthesis of my career. I started out as a wildlife photographer pursuing animals one at a time. As I learned more about their lives,my view grew to include their habitats, and animals became ambassadors for ecosystems. Biodiversity superseded ecosystems as a concept for understanding nature as a network made up of untold numbers of species. Yet every one of those living organisms has a unique origin in time, and that is the dimension I have attempted to convey in this book. It is humbling to imagine the immensity of time covered by the history of life on Earth. But that is what I plunged into, with curiosity and wonder. And I emerged from this journey with a different sense of myself in time. Life follows in the wake of Eye to Eye, which expressed the kinship of all animal life, and Jungles, which explored the complexities of nature in the tropics. I hope this book will contribute to bridging the gap between a naturalist's appreciation for nature and a scientist's understanding of life. It is my tribute to the kinship and continuity of all life on Earth.
Photographs and Text (c) 2006 Frans Lanting, Santa Cruz, California
Page 1 2
