Human Nature: Planet Earth In Our Time, Twelve Photographers Address the Future of the Environment

by Geoff Blackwell (Editor)

In Human Nature , 12 of today's most influential nature and conservation photographers address the biggest environmental concerns of our time.

• Joel Sartore
• Paul Nicklen
• Ami Vitale
• Brent Stirton
• Frans Lanting
• Brian Skerry
• Tim Laman
• Cristina Mittermeier
• J Henry Fair
• Richard John Seymour
• George Steinmetz
• Steve Winter

Alongside their reflections, they present curated selections from their photographic careers.

Stories and extraordinary images from around the world come together in a powerful call to awareness and action.

• The United Nations has declared that nature is in more trouble now than at any other time in human history.
• Extinction looms over one million species of plants and animals.
• Human Nature wrestles with challenging What do we have? What do we stand to lose?

This book offers inspiration to environmentalists, activists, photography fans, and anyone concerned about the future of our world.

• This illuminating book tackles our modern environmental future through the lens of preeminent photographers
• Great gift for photographers, nature enthusiasts, those who enjoy backpacking and camping, and anyone who cares about Earth's climate and future
• Add it to the shelf with books like National Geographic The Photo Ark The World's Most Vulnerable Animals by Joel Sartore, The Sixth An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert, and Dire The Visual Guide to the Findings of the IPCC by Michael E. Mann and Lee R. Kump.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, Coffee Table Books

300 pages, Hardcover

First published August 25, 2020

Reviews

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exquisitely photographed, this book also includes text by the photographers themselves, which was interesting but would have been served well by a spot of proofreading.

But I bought the book for its photography and was not disappointed. I will say that I had a hard time with one chapter, which pulled no punches concerning the brutality with which some animals are killed for the value of their horns or tusks; that one was hard to take. One of the photos in that section, however, was the reason I bought the book; as heartbreaking as it is, it restored my faith in humanity and some people's kindness towards animals.

On the other hand, Joel Sartore's dramatic photographs simply took my breath away; his pictures animals against a simple black background are stunning.

Overall, though, the photography reminds us of just how much we have to lose by not paying attention to our planet. There's so much beauty in the world; do we really want to ignore it until it's too late?

[Bill]

No rating as I did not read this but, as I do with so many of these expensive “coffee table books,” I did page through it. I actually looked at every photo and read almost every caption. Some of them were amazing, some were beautiful, some were touching, and some were concerning. And some were all of those at once. The concerning aspect of the photos is to be expected because all of the photographers who are featured in the book are ecologically minded. They are making the case through their words (I assume as I didn’t read much and they’d be “preaching to the choir” to me if I had read them) and especially their photos that we need to act now, we need to preserve and protect and conserve the natural environment we have. I did read the first 2 or 3 paragraphs of several of the photographers self-written text which was interesting as they described their youth and their first camera and how they chose this as their career.