Abrams, publisher of the book above, was also publisher for another conservation-friendly artist featured on our pages. They have a series of books that showcase wonders of nature in spectacular fashion, and we encourage a visit to their site by clicking the image above:

Photographer and conservationist Bryant Austin’s breathtaking photographic project Beautiful Whale is the first of its kind: It chronicles his fearless attempts to reach out to whales as fellow sentient beings. Featuring Austin’s intimate images—some as detailed as a single haunting eye—that result from encounters based on mutual trust, Beautiful Whalecaptures the grace and intelligence of these magnificent creatures. Austin spent days at a time submerged, motionless, in the waters of remote spawning grounds waiting for humpback, sperm, and minke whales to seek him out. As oceanographer Sylvia A. Earle says in her foreword to the book, “As an ambassador from the ocean—and to the ocean—Bryant Austin is not only a source of inspiration. He is cause for hope.”

Bryant Austin is a photographer and the founder of Marine Mammal Conservation Through the Arts. His photographs have been exhibited in the United States, Norway, and Japan. He lives in Carmel, California. Sylvia A. Earle is an oceanographer and the founder of Mission Blue, an organization dedicated to establishing marine conservation sites around the world.