Life

Lennart Nilsson is the world’s leading scientific photographer. His background was that of a photojournalist. His great emphasis is on the sense of a story. His work is also that of an artist, which makes him unique. This story, illustrated in Life, is the ultimate story – a visual account of human development, from DNA to stem cells. The photographs are reproduced at the highest quality as a single epic sequence. After the first publication of Lennart Nilsson’s photographs of human embryos in 1965 he published the essential book for the general reader on human birth, A Child is Born. This is probably the most successful illustrated book in history and as many as 50 million copies have been sold worldwide. Birth is not the conclusion of the book, but the centre of it. The first part will include studies of hormones, conception and embryonic development. The second part of the book will include the growth of body organs and tissues, viruses, cancer and studies of atmospheric particles. Perhaps no studies of human development have been as important since those of Leonardo da Vinci at the end of the fifteenth century. The afterword will be written by Hans Wigzell, Head of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and chairman of the board to award the Nobel Prize for Medicine, who has worked with Lennart Nilsson for more than twenty years.The format of the book is based on Full Moon, published in 1999 to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the landing of the Apollo astronauts on the Moon. Life will be published to coincide with an exhibition organised for the centenary of Hasselblad in Sweden which will be held in conjunction with an exhibition of Full Moon under the title Inner and Outer Space.