Wonderland: The Secret World of Mushrooms

"It’s mostly beautiful artist images of mushrooms—I mean beautiful. And there is nice text to accompany; information about the mushrooms, habitat, their relationships to the plants and the environment." — Fungi Journal

"While the photography takes centre stage, Vermeer demonstrates his deep knowledge of the fungal world with insightful texts that explore themes such as symbiosis, ecology and the threats posed by the many poisonous varieties." — Outdoor Photography

Wonderland is a unique coffee table book that takes the reader into the fascinating world of mushrooms. Dutch photographer Jan Vermeer took on this incomparable project after being fascinated by the beauty of two fly agaric in his own garden.

Equipped with his camera, he enthusiastically set off on a mushroom hunt and was rewarded with pictures in intoxicating colours and shapes of the most extraordinary and sometimes very rare specimens. He has now compiled the most beautiful shots in his photo book Wonderland.

Vermeer took all the pictures for Wonderland in his home country, the Netherlands, so the book is not only an artistic work of microphotography, but also an important document and archive of nature and the forest in its present state.

In short but informative texts, the author describes the wealth of forms of his plant photographic models, their usefulness in medicine, but also the dangers posed by fungi. He explains the symbiosis between fungi and trees and devotes special attention to slime moulds. In entertaining words, Vermeer explains to his readers the challenges he faced as a nature photographer in this ambitious project.

Wonderland is the perfect gift for anyone who likes to go mushroom picking, enjoys this little wonder of nature or is fascinated by the unique symbiosis with which mushrooms connect with their environment.

Text in English and German.