FRANS LANTING has been hailed as one of the great nature photographers of our time. His influential work appears in books, magazines, and exhibitions around the world. For more than two decades he has documented wildlife and our relationship with nature in environments from the Amazon to Antarctica. He portrays wild creatures as ambassadors for the preservation of complete ecosystems, and his many publications have increased worldwide awareness of endangered ecological treasures in far corners of the earth.

Lanting's work has been commissioned frequently by National Geographic, where he served as a Photographer-in-Residence. His assignments have ranged from a first look at the fabled bonobos of the Congo Basin to a circumnavigation by sailboat of South Georgia Island in the subantarctic. Images from his year-long odyssey to assess global biodiversity at the turn of the millennium filled the February 1999 issue of National Geographic. Lanting's work also includes profiles of ecological hot spots, stories on Hawaii's volcanoes, Zambia's Luangwa Valley, and a series of photo essays on American landscapes. His global survey of albatrosses was published in the December 2007 National Geographic. A feature on groundbreaking research with chimpanzees in Senegal appears in the April 2008 issue of the Magazine.