SANTA CRUZ, CA, May 17, 2006—Frans Lanting, acclaimed as one of the great nature photographers of our time, announced today the launch of Life: A Journey Through Time, an epic multi-year project that lyrically interprets the history of life on Earth from its earliest beginnings to its present diversity. 

The world premiere of Life as a multimedia orchestral performance with music by Philip Glass will take place in Santa Cruz, California, on July 29 and 30, 2006 in collaboration with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music and conductor Marin Alsop. In September 2006 art book publisher TASCHEN will release Life: A Journey Through Time as a large-format photographic book, and Naturalis, the National Museum of Natural History of the Netherlands, will open an exhibition of Life on September 22, 2006. A dedicated website developed with Sposto Interactive will be launched concurrently. 

Major support for Life comes from Nikon USA and Nikon Europe. All of the images for The Life Project were produced with Nikon photographic equipment, which enabled Lanting to capture images in all kinds of extremes, from erupting volcanoes to undersea reefs. “I wanted to apply both new scientific ideas to my subjects and state-of-the-art photographic technology to my images,” he says. The result is a unique multimedia project that merges the visual and performing arts with the natural sciences in innovative and groundbreaking ways. 

Six years in development, Life: A Journey Through Time is Frans Lanting's most ambitious project to date. In the year 2000, he set off on a journey of photographic discovery that parallels new scientific insights about the story of life on Earth. His search has been wide-ranging and provocative, leading him from microscopic worlds to primordial landscapes that preserve time capsules of life’s history. The result is a glorious celebration of planet Earth that inspires and informs through images and stories of the amazing biodiversity that surrounds us all. From prehistoric trilobites to giant tortoises, delicate jellies to spiny octopus trees, and from steaming jungles to shimmering coral reefs, Life: A Journey Through Time is a testament to the magical beauty and enduring miracle of our living planet. 

The Multimedia Orchestral Performance: World Premiere at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Santa Cruz, California, July 29 and 30, 2006

Images by:  FRANS LANTING  Music by: PHILIP GLASS  Conductor: MARIN ALSOP

A multimedia musical version of Life: A Journey Through Time will be produced by the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in collaboration with Frans Lanting and visual designer Alexander V. Nichols, with music for orchestra by Philip Glass, a composer internationally renowned for his opera, dance, orchestra, and film scores. Led by acclaimed conductor Marin Alsop, Life: A Journey Through Time is a groundbreaking new multimedia work that merges art and science, photography and music. The world premiere performances will take place on July 29 and 30, 2006, at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, California. Performances of Life by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra have been scheduled in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Maryland, for February 22, 23, 24, and 25, 2007. The Cabrillo Festival is in discussion with other orchestra partners to join in a series of worldwide performances in North America and Europe between September 2006 and September 2008.

NOTE: Tickets for the world premiere musical performances of Life: A Journey Through Time are now on sale. They are available at www.cabrillomusic.org We suggest that you order your tickets as soon as possible. These performances will sell out!

The Book: A large-format photographic book to be published worldwide in Sept. 2006 by TASCHEN

Life: A Journey Through Time will be published worldwide as a large-format photographic book by TASCHEN, the renowned publisher of exquisite coffee-table books featuring the world’s foremost artists. The lavish, 304-page hardcover book includes more than 175 color images by Frans Lanting along with personal stories and interpretive scientific text produced in collaboration with editor Christine Eckstrom. The book will be released in September 2006 in English, German, French, Dutch, and Spanish language editions.

Frans Lanting’s previous books have received worldwide acclaim. “No one turns animals into art more completely than Frans Lanting,” writes The New Yorker magazine about Lanting’s book Jungles. His book Eye to Eye: Intimate Encounters with the Animal World was named by PBS-San Francisco in the United States as one of the 50 most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century.

The Exhibition: A photographic exhibition to be launched September 22, 2006 by Naturalis, the National Museum of Natural History of the Netherlands

Life: A Journey Through Time will be produced as a touring photographic exhibition by Naturalis, the National Museum of Natural History of the Netherlands, in collaboration with Frans Lanting. The Life exhibit will be launched on September 22, 2006 at Naturalis in Leiden, the Netherlands, where it will be displayed through September 3, 2007.  Afterward, the exhibit will tour through Europe and around the world. A separate North American exhibition that will tour concurrently with the European exhibit is also planned. Two previous exhibitions of Frans Lanting’s work, Eye to Eye and Jungles, have been touring Europe and North America for more than seven years and have been featured at leading museums including The Field Museum in Chicago, the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and the National Geographic Society’s Explorers Hall.

The Website: An original production for the world wide web, www.lifethroughtime.com, to be launched in September 2006; designed and developed in partnership with Sposto Interactive, www.sposto.com

The musical premieres, exhibitions, and book release of Life: A Journey Through Time will be accompanied by the launch of an educational website. The Life website, www.lifethroughtime.com, will serve as a portal for the project and for learning and information about life on Earth. It will connect web users with images and stories, links and interactive applications, and will provide information about the musical performances, the book, the exhibitions, and the photographs.

The Life Project is made possible by the generous support of TASCHEN Publishers, Nikon USA and Nikon Europe, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Sposto Interactive, the Blue Earth Alliance, Naturalis, the National Museum of Natural History of the Netherlands, and other sponsors and donors.

FRANS LANTING

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 from the Amazon to Antarctica to promote understanding about the Earth and its natural history through images that convey a passion for nature and a sense of wonder about our living planet. Frans has received top honors from World Press Photo, the title of BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and the Sierra Club’s Ansel Adams Award. He has been honored as a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society in London and is a recipient of Sweden’s Lennart Nilsson Award. Prince Bernhard inducted him as a Knight in the Royal Order of the Golden Ark, the Netherlands’ highest conservation honor. Frans Lanting makes his home in Santa Cruz, California, with his wife, Christine Eckstrom, an editor, producer, and former staff writer at National Geographic with whom he collaborates on fieldwork and publishing projects. For further information please see www.lanting.com

CHRISTINE ECKSTROM

Christine Eckstrom is a writer, editor, and videographer.  She has collaborated with Frans Lanting for more than 15 years on assignments and fieldwork on every continent.  She is the author of Forgotten Edens and a contributing author of 15 books published by the National Geographic Society. The editor of Okavango, Jungles, Penguin, and Eye to Eye, she partners with Frans Lanting to produce books, videos, and other publishing projects from their studio and gallery in Santa Cruz, California. For further information please see www.lanting.com

NIKON

Nikon is the world leader in digital imaging, precision optics, and photo imaging technology and is globally recognized for setting new standards in product design and performance for its award-winning consumer and professional photographic equipment. Nikon distributes consumer and professional digital SLR cameras, Nikkor optics, Speedlights, and System Accessories; Nikon Coolpix® compact digital cameras; Coolscan® digital film scanners; 35mm film SLR cameras; Nikon software products, and Nikon sports and recreational optics. Nikon supports aspiring and advanced photographers through a variety of philanthropic organizations, educational programs, events and workshops. For more information, please visit www.nikonusa.com and www.europe-nikon.com

TASCHEN

TASCHEN is an art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany, that has been called the publisher of “the most exquisite books on the planet.” TASCHEN has been a noteworthy force in bringing art books to a mainstream audience, including both modern and classic books on art, design, and architecture. TASCHEN also has published the most expensive book in publishing history, the $3000, 75-pound, 700-page GOAT (Greatest of All Time), a tribute to Muhammed Ali that Der Spiegel called "the biggest, heaviest, most radiant thing ever printed in the history of civilization." For more information please visit www.taschen.com

THE CABRILLO FESTIVAL OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC

The Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music is America's longest running new music festival dedicated to orchestral music, and is the winner of the national A.S.C.A.P. Award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music for twenty-one consecutive years (1982-2003). Led by Music Director and Conductor Marin Alsop, who also serves as conductor of the Baltimore Symphony and is the first woman to lead a major American orchestra, the Cabrillo Festival has become the epicenter of modern symphonic music in our nation.  For more information please visit www.cabrillomusic.org

PHILIP GLASS

Philip Glass is considered one of the most influential composers of our time. He is a pioneer of Minimalist music and is widely recognized as a composer who has brought art music to the public. He has produced music for film, opera, theatre, and orchestra, and has received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for his film scores. A prolific composer, Glass’s artistic collaborators include Ravi Shankar, David Bowie, the late Allen Ginsberg, and Doris Lessing, among many others. He is a Buddhist and a co-founder of the Tibet House with actor Richard Gere.  A native of Baltimore, Glass makes his home in New York City.

NATURALIS

Naturalis, the National Museum of Natural History of the Netherlands, is a leading European museum of natural history that attracts more than 250,000 visitors annually. It was awarded the Prince Bernhard Fund Museum Award for its innovative exhibits and is known for its capacity to interpret earth and life sciences in a striking manner for large audiences. For more information please visit www.naturalis.nl

SPOSTO INTERACTIVE

Sposto Interactive is a creative development firm specializing in web-based communication and experience solutions.  Sposto provides strategy, planning, content development, design, creative production, and back-end development for full websites, rich media advertising, and web applications. For more information, please visit www.sposto.com

THE BLUE EARTH ALLIANCE

The Blue Earth Alliance is a non-profit 501(c) (3) corporation dedicated to supporting photographic projects that educate the public about threatened cultures, endangered environments, and other social concerns. The Blue Earth Alliance has accepted Life: A Journey Through Time as a project eligible for financial support. For more information please email the Blue Earth Alliance at info@blueearth.org, or visit www.blueearth.org