In the tradition of monumental Magnum books, this publication brings together an eclectic assortment of work by the finest photographers of our time, capturing a riveting and seductive series of fleeting moments around the world. For half a century, Magnum photographers - through countless commissions and their own personal work - have produced images that comment on the state of the world. In photographing the landscape they are not just spectators but participants, aware that the land itself has been shaped by man, and that the very notion of a landscape depends on a human viewpoint. As each photographer records and interprets a diversity of subject matter to form a unique personal style, the variations on this theme are endless - landscapes of war, of agriculture, of industry, of cities and motorways, of desolation, celebration and tranquillity.

The photographs assimilated in this book invite us to rediscover landscape, and urge us to think more profoundly not only about planet earth in its entirety, but about our own place in it.