New Peabody Exhibition Features Jungle Shots

By Master Photographer Frans Lanting

NEW HAVEN — Braving treacherous jungles from the lowlands of the Congo to the cloud forests of the Andes and armed with patience, forbearance and the skilled eye of a master, renowned wildlife photographer and naturalist Frans Lanting has documented nature in the tropics like no one has before. In a collection of stunning color photographs of some of the most mysterious and remote places on Earth and their animal inhabitants, he has captured the beauty, manic pace, wonder and fragility of Earth’s “forgotten Edens.”

Forty-five of these photos, shot over a 20-year period, are shown in spectacular large-scale format in “Jungles: Photographs by Frans Lanting,” on view at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History until February 22. They are grouped into four themes to emphasize elements of the jungle: Water and Light, Color and Camouflage, Anarchy and Order, and Form and Evolution.

Mr Lanting has been hailed as one of the great nature photographers of our time. His award-winning photographs have appeared in major publications around the world, and The New Yorker claims, “No one turns animals into art more completely than Frans Lanting.”

From the sensational gatherings of rainbow macaws to the misty exhalations of a forest at dawn, Mr Lanting evokes the majesty and intricate natural order of the forests. There is an orangutan swinging through the forest, the giant Rafflesia flowers of Borneo, an aye-aye peeping out from behind a leaf, and a passionflower with its “guardian” ants. Combined with inspiring quotations from great biologists such as Charles Darwin and E. O. Wilson, they exemplify what Mr Lanting describes as “the ultimate expression of life on earth.”

Wild creatures are portrayed as ambassadors for the preservation of complete ecosystems, and Mr Lanting does not shirk in reminding viewers that these habitats are being threatened and that we need to take action to preserve the world and its creatures.

Capturing the splendor of the forest was no small feat.

“The forest may be a naturalist’s paradise,” wrote Mr Lanting, “but for a photographer it can be a nightmare. Once you are inside it is all blood, sweat, and leeches. Whatever you take into the forest becomes part of the food chain, whether it is your equipment or yourself.”

He has spent 12-hour days in a canvas blind 90 feet above the forest floor — a virtual lightning rod as thunderstorms approached — attempting to remain motionless in the intense humidity while sweat bees drink from his skin. Down on the forest floor he has crouched in waterholes for days on end waiting for the perfect moment while fungus sprouts on his equipment and leaf-cutter ants eat through his tent.

“Jungles” can be viewed Monday through Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm, Sundays from noon to 5.

Admission is $7 for adults, $6 senior citizens, $5 for college students and ages 3-18, and $3 per person for groups (advance reservations required for the group discount; call 203-432-3775).

The museum is at 170 Whitney Avenue in New Haven. For more information, visit peabody.yale.edu or call 203-432-5050.