Cyril Christo (born 11 May 1960, Paris, France) is a writer, poet, photographer, filmmaker and animal rights activist residing in Santa Fe, New Mexico.[1] He has created or co-created a number of poetry and photography books that include Lost Africa: The Eyes of Origin, Walking Thunder: In the Footsteps of the African Elephant, and In Predatory Light: In Search of Lions, Tigers and Polar Bears.[2]
He is the son of Christo Vladimirov Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon, who are known as the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Since 1997 he frequently works on films and books with his wife, Marie Wilkinson, and occasionally too with his son Lysander.[3] The three of them worked with Jane Goodall on the book Lords of the Earth: The Entwined Destiny of Wildlife and Humanity.[4] Christo and Wilkinson's first book of black and white photography, Lost Africa: The Eyes of Origin, published by Assouline Publishing in 2005, focused on ecological and man-made troubles that face tribal communities in the Horn of Africa. Photographs from that project were also published.[5]
Early life and education
Christo was born in France and has lived in the United States since the age of four, when his family moved there in 1964.[6] Christo studied at Cornell University and graduated from Columbia University in 1982.[7][8]
Film work
Together with his wife Mary Wilkinson[9] he has been engaged since 1996 in wildlife documentary projects[10][11] and has published several photography books about Africa that call attention to endangered animals such as elephants, leopards, giraffes, and lions.[12] as well as appeals for more stricter measures to enforce the protection of whales and polar bears.
Their son Lysander (born 22 September 2005)[13][14] has participated in their projects in East Africa from an early age.[15][16] In 2007 they released a short documentary film titled Lysander's Song about the interactions between humans and elephants.[17][18]
Cyril Christo[19] is the co-producer of A Stitch for Time: The Boise Peace Quilt Project,[20] which was nominated in 1998 for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film documents activities of a group of quilt makers in Boise, Idaho, who received international attention for promoting peace by sending a quilt in 1981[21] to the Soviet Union as well as making the National Peace Quilt in 1986 for display in the United States Senate and later deposit at the Smithsonian Institution.[22][23][24][25]
The film Walking Thunder: Ode to the African Elephant about Lysander's encounter with elephants in East Africa[26] was screened at the 2019 Taos Environmental Film Festival.[27]
Book publications
1990: The Dream of the Earth. Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston. (Book of Poems) ISBN088946846X
1990: The Iguana at the Millenium: Poems: 14. Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston. (Book of Poems) ISBN0889468451
2009: Walking Thunder: In the Footsteps of the African Elephant. Merrell, London. ISBN1858945054
2013: In Predatory Light: Lions and Tigers and Polar Bears. Merrell, London. (with Marie Wilkinson) ISBN1858946107
2022: Lords of the Earth: The Entwined Destiny of Wildlife and Humanity. (with Marie Wilkinson and Lysander Christo, prologue by Jane Goodall)[28]ISBN3862069443
2024: Wonder and the World: A Childhood Among the Species. Verlag Kettler. (with Marie Wilkinson and Lysander Christo) ISBN3987410795
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
