Frans Lanting is renowned as one of the greatest nature photographers of our era. Lanting’s epic photographic project Life: A Journey Through Time, guided by recent scientific insights, interprets Earth’s developmental journey through 64 stunning images ranging from primordial landscapes to microscopic specimens in museum collections. The exhibition celebrates our planet with educational and inspiring stories of Earth’s amazing biodiversity.

The photographic journey begins with the transformation of single-celled organisms into more advanced oceanic life forms, and the transition of these early creatures to life on land. Before our eyes, plants and animals spread across the continents. Locations include some of the harshest and most remote on the planet, such as the Valley of Geysers in Kamchatka, where active geologic displays mirror the cataclysmic events that spawned our planet.

Lanting also delved deep into museum collections to study and photograph patterns of microscopic organisms and human anatomy, in an attempt to identify similar patterns on a larger scale across the surface of the earth. The exhibition is narrated by the photographer’s personal essays about his experiences with imagery, and text from the book of the same name that documents the project.

Image: Desert spadefoot frog (Notaden nichollsi), Central Australia