Mare di Sogni

Author: Christopher Swann
Format: hardcover, 28x32 cm, 372 pages
Language: English
ISBN 9788831403726

A visual and poetic journey into the wild magic of Baja California.

Where the desert meets the sea and light sculpts ancient landscapes, Sea of Dreams tells a real, lived, and deeply personal story. More than twenty years ago, the call of whales drew the author to this remote place—an encounter that blossomed into a life dedicated to the sea.

This book gathers decades of exploration, photography, and immersion in the nature of the Sea of Cortez: a world of silences, close encounters, and primordial beauty.

Extraordinary scenes emerge from its pages:

• boojum trees and cardon cacti rising like natural sculptures
• islands appearing and disappearing like mirages
• gray whales finding refuge in tranquil lagoons

But Sea of Dreams is also something more. It is a testament.
A remembrance of an abundance that is slowly fading.

The sea is changing: fewer whales, more fragile ecosystems, deeper and deeper silences. This book thus becomes an invitation to observe, remember, and protect.

From Picacho del Diablo to the whirlpools of Salsipuedes, each image captures nature in its most authentic state—free, powerful, untamed.

Why choose it

• High-level artistic photography
• Authentic and immersive storytelling
• Perfect for sea, nature, and travel lovers
  

A work that speaks of desire—for beauty, wilderness, and truth—and the discovery of an intense life under starry skies and among surfacing whales.

Christopher Swann began his love affair with the sea as a diver, first in the Royal Navy and then in the North Sea oil fields. This in turn led him to an interest in old square-rigged sailing ships, which for several years became his work and passion, before he bought his own 78-foot ketch, Marguerite Explorer, and began running wildlife holidays. All this had barely begun when he discovered whales, and the course of his life was set.
He ran whale-watching holidays for almost 35 years, collaborating on scientific projects, contributing to film footage, and traveling thousands of miles for cetacean research. Throughout all this time he felt no need to take a photograph, as he often said later: "to watch was all the pleasure I needed."
Eventually, however, and partly because some of his clients gave him a digital camera, he began taking pictures, and over time he amassed a vast collection of cetacean images, published in everything from National Geographic to the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year. His passion for whales never waned, and despite being almost 70, he still spends months in his small open boat, wandering the Sea of Cortez in search of cetaceans and other marine life.