Michael Runkel

This book is an extraordinary photographic volume about indigenous cultures whose ways of life and traditions are threatened by climate change, land dispossession, and globalisation. The photographic journey leads to peoples such as the Wodaabe in Niger, the Mundari in South Sudan, the Chin women in Myanmar, the Nenets in Siberia, and the Yanomami in South America—communities whose identities are inseparably connected to landscape, ritual, and community. Combining large-format, powerful photography with authentic texts on rituals, everyday life, and the challenges these cultures face, the book offers a respectful, documentary perspective that inspires admiration rather than folklore.

The natural beauties of Oceania's island world, scattered far across the South Pacific and divided into the cultural areas of Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia, are overwhelming. But besides lonely palm islands, ever-warm lagoons and colorful coral reefs, there are also more rugged beauties such as the volcanic islands of Marquesas, where beaches are rare. The book shows in over 400 photographs the unique beauty of the region.