Earth Is My Witness: The Photography of Art Wolfe

This massive coffee table of images from photographer Art Wolfe's 50-year career both stuns and informs while documenting the wonders of our world, many of them fast disappearing. The book is divided based on geographical formations and the pictures are literally breathtaking, many of them two-page spreads. There is wildlife, close-up and in action: a group of Japanese macaques bathing, their red faces in repose, their hands like furry gloves gripping the rocks; a line of penguins marching through a snow bank; a portrait of a Canadian lynx. There are studies of people from every far flung corner of the globe: the faces of the Huli tribesmen of New Guinea holding painted skulls, a young Tuareg man of Morocco, his head swathed in the famous blue cloth of the Saharan desert, young Jat women of Gujarat, India in their magnificently patterned and colored saris. The beauty of place is evident in photos of the desert sands of Namibia's Namib-Naukluft National Park, the aurora borealis in Iceland, the Payachata volcanoes in Lauca National Park, Chile. One can open to any page and be transported, and while it may inspire travel, with this book, it's just as satisfying sitting in an armchair. (Oct.)