Frans Lanting

I once lived on the top of a ridge, with few buildings obstructing the view. I spent that year aware of the sky. It was a presence, not a background. The soul is fed by what the eye perceives. That year was one of exhilaration and growth.

We all need to get in touch with nature for nourishment. As an amateur Soul Nutritionist, I prescribe this book.

The pictures are powerful, majestic, touchable, absorbing, unexpected.
The text gently educates in geography and ecology. The narrative adds the show more other senses to the experience: weather, smells, sound.

This is a concentrated dose. show less

This book consists of > 140 photographs of wild animals taken in natural settings. Mammals and birds predominate, with a few of reptiles, amphibians, and insects. Frans Lanting is a highly - regarded photographer, and many of the photos are of excellent quality. The photos are organized into three broad categories -- (1) photographs of individual animals (commonly focused on faces and eyes -- as in the book's title); (2) photos of mated pairs; and (3) photos of large numbers of animals show more together. An appendix offers details for each photo of where it was taken, and comments on how the author took the shot.

Unfortunately, this book does not show Lanting's art to good advantage, because the quality of reproduction is substandard. Too many of the photos lack sharpness, color balance, and adequate contrast. Some are enlarged too much, resulting in poor resolution, and many have a red cast that either resulted from a poor original or clumsy editing. Given this book's printing date (1997 and 2003), the photos were taken on film and probably were not processed digitally. The photos would have benefitted markedly from digital processing and high quality printing. The reproduction of these photographs in Eye to Eye does not do them justice. show less

The farthest corners of the earth flourish with exotic flora and fauna, but man's increasing encroachment threatens these distant paradises. Beautiful photographs and lively prose highlight tours of four islands and one desert oasis. This book is organized by geographic area, and indexed accordingly. The content focuses on the delicately entwined relationships in the environment- relationships that can be devastated by commercial exploitation of natural resources, but also repaired and show more rebalanced when humans stop or altar our activity. show less

I really enjoyed this national geographic survey of five places that remain wild and somewhat pristine in today's modernized world. The book was written by a freelance writer who was qualified as a national geographic staff writer for 16 years and the photographer is of award winning acclaim. Together they paint a beautiful mental picture of some of these most exotic places. The tone of writing is informative yet poetically visual in its description of the environments and behavior of those show more living in them. The writing goes into considerable detail about the history, state, and ecology of these areas. Very informative and interesting, the language level is probably at least for high schoolers. The book is sectioned into the five places that are studied. Each part although including photos and other visual aids such as maps in between the text is followed by multiple pages of wildlife photography pertaining to the information and is described by captions. Overall an excellent book that I would enthusiastically use to inform students of the biodiversity of certain extraordinary places and to inspire interest in the worlds wild places. show less