Jungles

Frans Lanting Taschen Publishers, Köln, London & Madrid, 2000.
Price approx. R269-95
(available from good bookstores, or on-line at
www.nhbs.com, www.kalahari.net or www.amazon.com)
ISBN: 3-8228-6309-2
270x335mm, sumptuous hardcover, 260 pages

In this day and age, it is easier than ever for a person to capture sights and events with a camera. Technological advancements in terms of auto-exposure and auto-focus, not to mention the potential for digital enhancement of images, make it possible for just about anybody to take a good wildlife photograph. This is surely no bad thing, for it is has opened up the activity to a vast number of people who derive great enjoyment from photographing subjects ranging from elephants and tigers, to dragonflies and garden snails.

It has meant, however, that the gap between professionals - those who derive their income from photography - and amateur or part-time photographers has narrowed.

Of course, a critical thing about nature photography is being able to get into the right place at the right time, and this invariably involves an understanding of wildlife behaviour. Not everybody has this, but it too can be acquired.

What cannot be acquired, is an inherent vision and empathy for a subject. This, when combined with patience and technical mastery, is a potent combination and one which Frans Lanting has honed to a fine art. He stands alone among present day nature photographers. His work is somehow immediately recognisable. Not for Lanting the clinical representation - he's after colour, light, movement and mood. The very things which stir our souls.

Jungles too, in all their diversity, mystery and abundance, stir our souls. Paging through this collection of breathtaking images, is the closest one could come to entering a real jungle. You can almost feel the sweat rising on your brow as you turn each page and another image evokes the humidity and heat of the tropical forest.}

The images in this book were captured over a twenty year period in the tropics of Central and South America, Borneo and Australasia, Africa and Madagascar. It is hardly the job of a book reviewer to repeat the blurb on book's dust-jacket, but this extract from Jungles is a deserving exception: "In photographs that range from spectacular gatherings of rainbow-coloured macaws to the misty exhalations of a forest at dawn, Frans Lanting evokes the luscious sensuality and intricate natural order of the forests that shelter the ultimate expression of life on earth".

In the master photographer's own words, "This book is a personal vision of jungles, it is about the feeling of the forest rather than the science of it".

Despite the critical and fundamental role which they play in regulating the climate of our fragile planet, tropical forests are, the world over, threatened by logging and clearing. Hundreds of thousands of species are at risk, including spectacular creatures such as jaguars, parrots and great apes, as acres of forests are turned to ash and mud every day.

Let us hope that this superb book finds its way into the homes and offices of politicians and decision-makers across the globe, and that the images will find their way into their hearts.

Posted: Plants by CC Africa, Date: 22 November 2006