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Cyril Christo (born 11 May 1960, Paris, France) is a writer, poet, photographer, filmmaker and animal rights activist residing in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has created or co-created a number of poetry and photography books that include Lost Africa: The Eyes of Origin, Walking Thunder: In the Footsteps of the African Elephant, and In Predatory Light: In Search of Lions, Tigers and Polar Bears.

He is the son of Christo Vladimirov Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon, who are known as the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Since 1997 he frequently works on films and books with his wife, Marie Wilkinson, and occasionally too with his son Lysander. The three of them worked with Jane Goodall on the book Lords of the Earth: The Entwined Destiny of Wildlife and Humanity. Christo and Wilkinson's first book of black and white photography, Lost Africa: The Eyes of Origin, published by Assouline Publishing in 2005, focused on ecological and man-made troubles that face tribal communities in the Horn of Africa. Photographs from that project were also published.

Early life and education

Christo was born in France and has lived in the United States since the age of four, when his family moved there in 1964. Christo studied at Cornell University and graduated from Columbia University in 1982.

Film work

Together with his wife Mary Wilkinson he has been engaged since 1996 in wildlife documentary projects and has published several photography books about Africa that call attention to endangered animals such as elephants, leopards, giraffes, and lions. as well as appeals for more stricter measures to enforce the protection of whales and polar bears.

Their son Lysander (born 22 September 2005) has participated in their projects in East Africa from an early age. In 2007 they released a short documentary film titled Lysander's Song about the interactions between humans and elephants.

Cyril Christo is the co-producer of A Stitch for Time: The Boise Peace Quilt Project, which was nominated in 1998 for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film documents activities of a group of quilt makers in Boise, Idaho, who received international attention for promoting peace by sending a quilt in 1981 to the Soviet Union as well as making the National Peace Quilt in 1986 for display in the United States Senate and later deposit at the Smithsonian Institution.

The film Walking Thunder: Ode to the African Elephant about Lysander's encounter with elephants in East Africa was screened at the 2019 Taos Environmental Film Festival.

Book publications

• 1990: The Dream of the Earth. Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston. (Book of Poems) ISBN 088946846X
• 1990: The Iguana at the Millenium: Poems: 14. Edwin Mellen Press, Lewiston. (Book of Poems) ISBN 0889468451
• 1993: Christo: The Reichstag and Urban Projects. (Contributor) ISBN 3791313231
• 1997: Hiroshima, My Love (Epic poem on the theme of Hiroshima) ISBN 0773428194
• 1998: Whispering Veils : Poems on Christo's Art. Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, New York. ISBN 0883630230
• 1998: The Twilight Language, Canios Editions. ISBN 1886435057
• 2004: Lost Africa: Eyes of Origin. Assouline, New York City. (with Marie Wilkinson ISBN 284323607X
• 2004: Africa : la terre des origines. (in French) ISBN 2843236436
• 2009: Walking Thunder: In the Footsteps of the African Elephant. Merrell, London. ISBN 1858945054
• 2013: In Predatory Light: Lions and Tigers and Polar Bears. Merrell, London. (with Marie Wilkinson) ISBN 1858946107
• 2022: Lords of the Earth: The Entwined Destiny of Wildlife and Humanity. (with Marie Wilkinson and Lysander Christo, prologue by Jane Goodall) ISBN 3862069443
• 2024: Wonder and the World: A Childhood Among the Species. Verlag Kettler. (with Marie Wilkinson and Lysander Christo) ISBN 3987410795

References

1. "Christo & Wilkinson Blog". Christo and Wilkinson Photography. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
2. Wallis Annenberg Space for Photography, Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson
3. Voices for Biodiversity, Cyril Christo
4. Lords of the Earth: The Entwined Destiny of Wildlife and Humanity
5. Artsy Mursi RoadBlock, Omo River Valley, Ethiopia 2001 archival pigment print
6. "Life and work". christo jeanne claude. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
7. "Bookshelf | Columbia College Today". www.college.columbia.edu. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
8. "Christo | Smithsonian American Art Museum". americanart.si.edu. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
9. Smith Brady, Lois (20 September 1998). "Cyril Christo, Marie Wilkinson". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
10. Namasha (26 May 2011). "Artist Spotlight: Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson". African Rain Forest. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
11. Urken, Ross Kenneth (28 January 2011). "Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson". Guest of a Guest. GofG Exclusive Interview. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
12. Lords of the Earth: The Entwined Destiny of Wildlife and Humanity
13. "Lysander Christo". voicesforbiodiversity.org. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
14. "[no title cited]". WhartonDC. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
15. "2019 Film Festival". taos environmental film festival. 21 February 2019. Archived from the original on 21 April 2019. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
16. "Christo & Wilkinson". Christo and Wilkinson Photography (blog). Retrieved 21 April 2019.
17. "Lysander's Song". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
18. "Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson's Lysander's Song: Documenting Kenya's disappearing elephants". Vanity Fair. 22 September 2011. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
19. "Cyril Christo". IMDB. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
20. O'Connor, John J. (14 December 1988). "Bridging 2 cultures via satellite". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
21. Bourhill, Colleen (1 December 1982). "Boise Freeze Movement" (PDF). The University News – Boise State University. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
22. "The National Peace Quilt". University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
23. "Peace and protest". World quilts: The American story. International Quilt Museum University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
24. Kolbert, Elizabeth (10 October 1985). "Quilters making an appeal for peace". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
25. "The Boise Peace Quilt Project". quilts. quilts, inc. Archived from the original on 11 August 2019. Retrieved 11 August 2019.
26. Cannon, John C. (21 May 2018). "Documenting the African elefant's ..." Mongabay. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
27. "Taos Environmental Film Festival". Retrieved 21 April 2019.
28. "Ghosts in the Grass". Christo and Wilkinson Photography. Retrieved 21 April 2019.

• 1960 births
• Living people
• American poets
• American documentary filmmakers
• American people of Bulgarian descent
• American people of French descent
• American nature photographers
• People from Santa Fe, New Mexico
• Columbia College (New York) alumni
• Film producers from New Mexico