The Oldest Living Things in the World
Oh. My. Talk about wonderlust. I love this project. Rachel Sussman created this project, called “The Oldest Living Things in the World,” as a photographer with a fine arts background who wanted to use photographs to expand our minute human experience and understanding of time.
Inspired by an ancient tree in Japan while on a photography trip, she realized that it would be really interesting to try to document the oldest living species, and was amazed to find that no one had ever done a project on this subject in either the arts or the sciences. So, she took it upon herself! The result is this portfolio of literally the oldest living things on the earth– all these old plants that are all at least two THOUSAND years old!
In the gallery above (click thumbnails to enlarge, then click on the right side to go to the next image), the images are as follows:
jomon sugi japanese cedar (2,180 – 7,000 years old, yaku shima, japan); la llareta (up to 3,000 years old, atacama desert, chile); welwitschia mirabilis (2,000 years old; namib naukluft desert, namibia)
2010/08 Rachel Sussman from CreativeMornings on Vimeo.
Les Ailes Pourpres
I haven’t seen this film, The Crimson Wing: Mystery of the Flamingos, but I was entranced by this trailer, with its stunning imagery and Coldplay-esque music by The Cinematic Orchestra. Produced by Disney Nature, the documentary was filmed in northern Tanzania in a region never before shown on film.
If you liked Planet Earth or the LIFE series narrated by Oprah, I think you’ll like this. It’s an awe-inspiring reminder of what an amazing creation our planet is.
Music by Cinematic Orchestra
