Customer Reviews

Penguin (Photobook)

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When you're fond of nature photography, in particular wildlife, then this book is great. Frans Lanting's pictures are fantastic; he is able to capture the essence of the life of penguins, particular those living at or in the vicinity of the South Pole. Mr. Lanting's style of photography is unique; he goes beyond pure registration as often seen in wildlife photography books and even beyond rules of composition. He makes portraits and tries to capture the soul of the animal in a picture. When you like his book 'Eye to Eye' you will also enjoy this book.

Published Monday, December 27, 1999, in the San Jose Mercury News: Warm look at penguins' cold habitat

BY LINDA GOLDSTON

ABOUT this time last year, I told you about a wonderful book called ``Eye to Eye: Intimate Encounters With the Animal World'' by Santa Cruz photographer Frans Lanting.

Today I get to tell you about his newest, titled simply ``Penguin.''

Lanting has spent the last 20 years researching and photographing the worlds of wildlife and his books are gifts to the rest of us.

They take us up close to animals in their habitats, help us see in new ways how much we all have in common. The difference, of course, is that we get to learn these things while looking at his books in the warmth of our homes.

Lanting goes to the source.

``It hurts to breathe at minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit,'' he writes in ``Penguin.''

``Even if you are an emperor penguin, you have to hunch and huddle. If you are a human, you have to hide.''

At the time, Lanting lay inside a tent in Antarctica ``holding on to the poles. The blizzard outside has pushed the ceiling down to a few inches above my nose.

``I am uncomfortably aware that only a thin membrane of nylon separates me from conditions I could not survive. Yet outside there are baby birds. They are emperor penguin chicks, and I am here to document their lives.''

As a former photojournalist, I have no problem saying that Lanting's work is very special.

From the cover photo of an emperor penguin family to the series of king penguin chicks and numerous others in the book, ``Penguin'' is a celebration of the uniqueness of each bird, no matter how alike they might seem to the rest of us.

``There's a lot more than meets the eye,'' Lanting said. ``A penguin is not a penguin, is not a penguin.''

I've seen two of Lanting's books and quickly added both to my list of favorites.

Lanting is a photographer with a purpose. He won the Sierra Club's 1997 Ansel Adams Award for using his photography to further conservation.

No, neither have I but you'll find them in Frans Lanting's beautiful paperback of penguin photos, along with the emperor, gentoo, king, magellanic, chinstrap, adelie and rockhopper, all in dazzling color. As he says in the books short introduction it is not a natural history of these amazing birds but a personal photographic interpretation shot over a ten-year period. The birds are shown in all weather conditions, as huge groups, ten or so and as individuals in very detailed close-ups. Naturally the close-ups of parents with chicks are the most appealing photos in the book.

Many of the photos have captions and rather strangely there are twenty-four pages at the back of the book with thumbnails of all the photos and detailed captions, I would have thought it better to use these pages for more photos and have a caption (where needed) on each page. Apart from this I think it is a lovely book of penguin photographs and excellent value too.

"Penguins" by Frans Lanting is one of the most beautiful nature books I have ever seen. In it he details the lives of various species of penguins through his brilliant photographs and a modicum of text. Make no mistake; this is a book of pictures: it does have a small amount of informative text, but the main attraction is the incredible color photographs. The photos are arranged artfully, but my one nitpick would be the captioning: each photo has a very abbreviated caption (though not always on the same page,) but to find out more detail about a given picture, you must flip to the back of the book and cross-reference the photo in the image index, a feature that I found annoying.

Overall this book is great, and I appreciated that Lanting did not devote the book to the more commonly known King and Emperor penguins, but also detailed the lives of other less well known species like the Rockhopper, Gentoo, and Macaroni penguins. For those interested, Lanting includes a section on penguin and Antarctic conservation in the back of the book. This is a great and visually stunning book, and I recommend it without reservation.

This book is top-notch and amazing, just like anything else you would expect from Frans Lanting. You can just imagine the hardwork the man goes into just get these photos you see, not to mention the ones you don't see. This book made me feel a connection to penguins I didn't have before. You look at the book and you can see how similar these animals really are to people, their behaviors and family and emotions are so human-like, it is scary and quite emotional sometimes. Amazing book.

Dutch-born nature photographer Frans Lanting should be a familiar name to the readers of National Geographic, Audubon, LIFE or several other prestigious high-circulation magazines. With a Master's degree in Environmental Economics, he devoted himself full-time to photography in 1980. Since then, he won numerous awards, including the Sierra Club's 1997 Ansel Adams Award, and was named the Photographer of the Year 1991 by BBC. Lanting now lives near Santa Cruz, California.

This monograph, which is actually his eight book, was conceived during his three visits to the Antarctic waters. The first of them brought him amidst the rockhoppers, gentoos and Magellanic penguins on the Falkland Islands. The second one was a two-month cruise around South Georgia, South Orkney and South Sandwich islands, where he observed the king, Adelie and chinstrap penguins. And finally, as a crown, he spent several weeks among the emperor penguins on the Weddell Sea, Antarctica. In total, there are over 100 photographs. Lanting's photography is always brilliant. True, penguins are always cute, but as other birds, they have no facial expression. It is therefore amazing how he managed to capture the spirit of the moment of a bird's life.

The book will surely attract any nature lover, ornithologist or not, and amateur nature photographer. For these latter, Lanting added some short notes on photographing penguins. And finally, if you are interested, you can learn more about Lanting on his internet site, triple W dot lanting dot com.

If you are looking for great photographies of wildlife and nature, this is the right place for looking.

I was wondering through the bookstore (sometimes I'm also in a real life bookstore y'know :-) the other day and my eye fell on this book's funny cover immediately. That's probably because I'm a Linux-user, which has a penguin as a mascotte. Anyway, I took a sneek peak inside and I was in awe of the quality of the photo's and the book itself. And of course bought it right away, which I never regretted.

I was a Linux fan and now I'm also a penguin fan :-)

I'm not really a "picturebook" person but got this as a gift --- and I adore it. Wonderful, lush photos, not a one wasted, all meriting more examination, in strange exotic snowscapes. All around as good as it could be. Informative but not much so -- the point is not the brief words but the stunning images. Congrats to the photographer.

I'VE BEEN TO A LOT OF THE PLACES THAT FRANS LANTING MENTIONS IN HIS BOOK . AND TAKEN A LOT OF THE SAME PHOTO'S , ALTHOUGH HIS ARE BY FAR BETTER THAN MINE . THE BOOK WAS GIVEN TO ME AS A GIFT AND IF I'M EVER IN NEED OF A REMINDER OF THE FALKLANDS OR SOUTH GEORGIA AND CAN'T BE BOTHERED TO DIG OUT MY PHOTO'S I READ THIS BOOK . THE QUALITY OF HIS PHOTOGRAPHS IS OUTSTANDING , YOU CAN VIRTUALLY EVOKE THE SIGHTS AND SMELLS OF THE COLONIES OF PENGUINS , ALL IN ALL AN EXCELLENT BOOK .