Beauty of the beasts. This is Frans Lanting's vibrant tribute to Old Africa revisited on its 20th anniversary. Botswana, many say, represents the last of Old Africa. And in the heart of this arid land lies a place as inspiring and as incongruous as the snow-capped summit of Kilimanjaro rising on the equator: that is the Okavango, one of the greatest wetlands on earth, whose very existence in the middle of a desert is nothing short of miraculous. - Frans Lanting, 1993 For a year, between 1988 and 1989, Frans Lanting roamed the wetlands and deserts of northern Botswana, living by the rhythms of the water and the movements of the animals as he captured them on film. The "National Geographic" had sent him there on assignment, but what he would take away was much more than a magazine story; it was a seminal and unparalleled collection of photographs depicting a world of flora and fauna that many had assumed no longer existed on this earth. As Lanting wrote, "To many who have seen the fate of other wild areas in Africa and elsewhere in the world, the very notion that such a place as Okavango still exists is like a dream."
Living out of vehicles and canvas tents, gliding through swamps, following lions by night - Lanting, armed with his Nikon FE2, got up close and personal with some of the planet's most formidable creatures. The book he published a few years later, "Okavango", was a testament not only to the wondrous wildlife of the region, but also to Lanting's extraordinary courage, skill, and photographic eye. After many publications of Lanting's work, including "Jungles", "Eye to Eye", and "Penguin", TASCHEN now revisits his original classic with this updated and expanded edition of "Okavango", further enhanced with all new reproductions and dozens of previously unpublished photos, as well a new preface by Lanting.