States of Nature | Archive Edition
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Description
What's Included
- Signed hardcover book with dust jacket
- Signed and numbered 9 × 12 in print of Najin and Fatu, unreleased and printed only for this edition
- Hand-crafted linen clamshell box
- Numbered Certificate of Authenticity
- Signed + hand-numbered No. X/50 (Archive Edition series); the book and print carry the same number
- Ships November 2026 from Texas
About the Archive Edition
The Archive Edition is limited to 50 copies worldwide.
Each copy is signed and hand-numbered by the artist, No. 1 through 50 in a dedicated series, separate from the Studio Edition. Every set includes a signed and numbered 9 × 12 in print of Najin and Fatu, a hand-crafted linen clamshell box, and a numbered Certificate of Authenticity.
Not sold by Hirmer or any retailer. These 50 copies are the only collector-boxed sets in existence.
The Print
The last two.
Najin and Fatu are mother and daughter, and the last two northern white rhinos on Earth. The last male, Sudan, Najin's father, died in 2018.
Both were born in a zoo in the Czech Republic and have lived at Ol Pejeta in Kenya since 2009. Rangers and caretakers stay with them day and night. Neither can carry a calf, so scientists are working to bring the species back through embryos.
Mital photographed them at Ol Pejeta in 2023. Standing in their presence changed how he saw his work. This photograph had not been printed or shown before this edition.
Print Information
- Print: Najin and Fatu, Ol Pejeta Conservancy, Kenya, 2023
- Print size: 9 × 12 in
- Signed and numbered by the artist; the print and the book carry the same number
- Made for this edition only; unreleased
About the Book
The first images for this book were made eleven years ago.
In between: 13 countries. 34 locations. Five continents. More than 100,000 frames.
States of Nature is not a survey of the world's most beautiful places. It is a sustained inquiry into what the natural world looks like on its own terms: before human civilization, alongside it, and in spite of it. Ancient stromatolites, still growing. Lava fields, still forming. Tsavo's red-dust elephants, still moving through terrain they have crossed for thousands of years. Lion cubs in the Maasai Mara, indifferent to the camera.
Of the 100,000 frames made over eleven years, 180 photographs made this book.
224 pages. 180 full-colour photographs. Printed and bound at Longo, Bolzano, Italy.
With an essay by Phillip Prodger.
About the Essay
Phillip Prodger served as Head of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery in London, and as founding Curator of Photography at the Peabody Essex Museum. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge. His books include An Alternative History of Photography.
His essay for States of Nature, "Seeing with Fresh Eyes," places Patel's work within the long history of nature photography and argues for its significance at this particular moment.
This is not a book about wildlife. It is a book about what was here before us.
The Making
States of Nature went to press on August 12, 2026, in Bolzano, Italy.
That day, six planets aligned at dawn, a total solar eclipse arrived at golden hour, and the Perseid meteor shower peaked after dark under a new moon. In a single day: fire, earth, water, ice: the four chapters of this book, demonstrated simultaneously in the heavens on the morning it was born.
It was never planned to arrive on this day. It simply did.
Perhaps that is the most fitting thing of all. A book about listening to the natural world found its moment when the natural world had the most to say.
Art in Service of the Wild
A portion of proceeds from States of Nature supports Ol Pejeta Conservancy, WildAid, and Tsavo Trust, protecting the species and places that made this work possible.
Mital Patel has worked alongside these organizations for over a decade. The photographs in this book are also the record of that relationship.
About the Artist
Mital Patel is an internationally recognized fine art photographer working across landscape, wildlife, and abstraction. Largely self-taught, his work spans all seven continents and has been exhibited at Christopher Martin Gallery in Dallas and The White Room Gallery in East Hampton. He was named Professional Photographer of the Year by the London Photography Awards in 2025.
States of Nature is his first monograph.
About the Publisher
Hirmer Verlag is a Munich-based publisher of art, photography and architecture books, with a list that also spans painting, sculpture, drawing, fashion and cultural history. States of Nature is distributed by Thames & Hudson in the UK and Europe and by the University of Chicago Press in North America.
Book Information
- Publisher: Hirmer Verlag, Munich
- Distributed by: Thames & Hudson (UK/Europe) · University of Chicago Press (North America)
- Format: Large-format hardcover with dust jacket
- Size: 9.5 × 12 inches
- Pages: 224
- Photographs: 180 full-colour plates
- Printing: Longo, Bolzano, Italy
- Essay: Phillip Prodger, "Seeing with Fresh Eyes"
Shipping Information
Pre-order. Books ship from Texas in November 2026. Shipping is calculated at checkout and paid by the buyer.