Featuring more than 600 awe-inspiring images curated by Stephen Ellcock, Ark is a celebration of the living wonders of this planet.

In this remarkable volume, Stephen Ellcock presents a vast treasury of diverse images from all five kingdoms of nature – from microscopic wonders and interconnected fungi to healing plants and the multitude of miraculous animal species that share our world. Together, illuminating captions, eye-opening essays by experts and extraordinary images present an optimistic vision of abundance, beauty and utility – a living world that we have the power to protect.

The book begins with foreword by award-winning writer Robert Macfarlane on the interconnection of nature. An essay by best-selling author Sarah Perry discusses the concept of the ark and the story of the flood. Stephen Ellcock then presents his curation of the myriad forms of life depicted by humanity throughout history. Quotations by artists, scientists and ecologists punctuate the pages, enlightening captions reflect on the artistry and the special qualities of specific species, and symbols highlight which of the species pictured are at risk of extinction.

Set among the curated images are three essays by celebrated nature writers: Harriet Rix, Helen Scales and Stephen Moss. Each writer guides readers through some of the intricate, life-sustaining relationships that populate nature’s elemental realms of earth, water and air and outlines some of the threats that climate change and human actions pose.

Stephen Ellcock is a renowned curator whose online ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ – an ever-expanding museum of art that is open to all via social media – has so far attracted 645,000 followers. Ellcock’s previous books with Thames & Hudson, The Cosmic Dance (2022), Underworlds (2023) and Elements (2024) have been published in German, French, Spanish and Italian. Chapter one of La Danse Cosmique was performed in Paris by Ballet de L’Opéra de Lyon (choreography: Lucinda Childs, music: Philip Glass) in December 2024 and March and May 2025.