Shimmering lakes. Snow-capped mountains. Primeval forest where pumas haunt the shadows. Free-flowing rivers that race to the sea. This is Chile's Corcovado National Park, one of the last great wilderness areas on Earth. Rising above it all is the Corcovado volcano, whose striking form has been a landmark for travellers along the Pacific coastline in southern Chile for centuries. Modern visitors to the region have called the mountain, the Matterhorn of South America.
In Corcovado National Park, renowned landscape photographer Antonio Vizcaíno captures the beauty and diversity of a magical setting almost untouched by modern humans. Designated in 2005 by President Ricardo Lagos, the park was born of an innovative public-private collaboration spurred by the largest-ever donation of private land to Chile's system of protected areas. With a foreword by Lagos and essays by other principals in the park's creation, Corcovado National Park explores the natural wonders of an extraordinary place and tells the stories of the conservationists who made certain it would remain a bastion of wild nature held in trust by the Chilean people for future generations.
A professional nature photographer, editor, and conservationist, Antonio Vizcaíno uses beauty to help foster a new culture that respects the value of nature. A Mexican citizen but full-time world traveler, he studied at the International School of Photography in New York, and over the past two decades has published twenty books. He is co-founder of America Natural, a conservation organization that employs landscape photography as its primary means of communication. In 2001, he launched an ongoing expedition to photograph outstanding natural areas from Tierra del Fuego to Alaska. By contributing these images to environmental education campaigns, Vizcaíno seeks to increase protection for the extraordinary biodiversity of the Americas.