Extinction is an attempt to understand, through photographs and text, the factors threatening numerous species of animal and plant with extinction and to explore man s relationship with life on Earth. It showcases ten years of photographing endangered and extinct specimens in The Field Museum in Chicago one of the world s greatest and most important sets of natural history collections. The photographs in Extinction were made behind the scenes in the Field Museum s collections, revealing specimens that are not on public display. Extinction illustrates the crucial importance of museum collections for conservation, education and research. The images lead the reader to the species stories, promoting a greater understanding of conservation efforts, reasons for decline (including climate change, habitat loss and overexploitation) and mankind s stewardship of life on Earth at a critical time in history. The United Nations recent Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services makes the set of issues affecting biodiversity even more topical. The book has been designed to have pages with black backgrounds for extinct species and white backgrounds for species nearing extinction. A yellow flag highlights conservation successes, which are interspersed throughout. The conservation success stories highlight the positive work that is happening and the potential there is to prevent the extinction of these and other species.

Russell "Russ" Melcher came to Europe and photographed the superstars of the time, either during their visits to Paris and France or accompanied them on worldwide trips. He witnessed many world events from film festivals to terrorist attacks. Among the portrayed were royal families like the Windsors, Grace Kelly & the Monegasques, as well as film legends like Romy Schneider, Alain Delon, Burt Lancaster, Erol Flynn, Alfred Hitchcock, Sofia Loren, Brigitte Bardot, and music legends like Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Harry Belafonte, and Yves Montand. In addition, there were political greats such as Charles DeGaulle, Fidel Castro, Nikita Khrushchev, the Shah of Persia, American presidents, and many more. Later Russ Melcher became director of the legendary photo agency MAGNUM and worked with photo legends Robert Capa, Henry Cartier-Bresson, Ian Berry, Bruce Davidson, Elliott Erwitt, to name a few. This large-format photo book is about the stories behind the images and personalities. Entertaining, humorous, but also profound, Russ describes his way to the perfect photo, his individual perspective, up to the importance of photographic storytelling of this 'Golden Age of Photojournalism'. Russ Melcher is an important witness to that time, but also an American entertainer in Paris who encouraged his protagonists to do things that few photographers could manage, a true and trusted partner to the stars of that era through the ages. The book is organised according to the two decades and Russell's encounters with the stars of the time. Text in English and German.