Cyril Christo
{{Short description|American writer, poet, photographer, filmmaker and animal rights activist (born 1960)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name =
| image =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1960|05|11}}
| education = Columbia University
| alma_mater =
| occupation = Writer, producer, poet, filmmaker, animal rights activist
| spouse = Marie Wilkinson
| children = Lysander Christo
| known_for = A Stitch for Time
| notable_works = Lords of the Earth: The Entwined Destiny of Wildlife and Humanity
| parents = Christo Vladimirov Javacheff and Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon (aka Christo and Jeanne-Claude)
}}
Cyril Christo (born 11 May 1960, Paris, France) is a writer, poet, photographer, filmmaker and animal rights activist residing in Santa Fe, New Mexico.{{cite web |url=https://christoandwilkinsonphotography.com |title=Christo & Wilkinson Blog |website=Christo and Wilkinson Photography |access-date=21 April 2019 }} 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.[https://www.annenbergphotospace.org/person/cyril-christo-and-marie-wilkinson/]Wallis Annenberg Space for Photography, Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson
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.[https://voicesforbiodiversity.org/about/storytellers/cyril-christo] Voices for Biodiversity, Cyril Christo The three of them worked with Jane Goodall on the book Lords of the Earth: The Entwined Destiny of Wildlife and Humanity.[https://la-chambre-claire.fr/livre/cyril-christo-lords-of-the-earth-the-entwined-destiny-of-wildlife-and-humanity/]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.[https://www.artsy.net/artwork/cyril-christo-and-marie-wilkinson-mursi-roadblock-omo-river-valley-ethiopia] Artsy Mursi RoadBlock, Omo River Valley, Ethiopia 2001 archival pigment print
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.{{cite web |title=Life and work |url=https://christojeanneclaude.net/life-and-work |access-date=21 April 2019 |website=christo jeanne claude}} Christo studied at Cornell University and graduated from Columbia University in 1982.{{Cite web |title=Bookshelf {{!}} Columbia College Today |url=https://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/archive/jul_aug10/bookshelf |access-date=2022-06-15 |website=www.college.columbia.edu}}{{Cite web |title=Christo {{!}} Smithsonian American Art Museum |url=https://americanart.si.edu/artist/christo-27236 |access-date=2022-06-15 |website=americanart.si.edu |language=en-US}}
Film work
Together with his wife Mary Wilkinson{{cite news
| last = Smith Brady
| first = Lois
| title = Cyril Christo, Marie Wilkinson.
| work = The New York Times
| date = 20 September 1998
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/20/style/weddings-vows-cyril-christo-marie-wilkinson.html
| access-date = 11 August 2019}}
he has been engaged since 1996 in wildlife documentary projects{{cite web |last1=Namasha |title=Artist Spotlight: Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson |url=http://africanrainforest.org/artist-spotlight-cyril-christo-and-marie-wilkinson |website=African Rain Forest |access-date=21 April 2019 |date=26 May 2011}}
{{cite news
| last = Urken
| first = Ross Kenneth
| title = Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson
| series = GofG Exclusive Interview
| work = Guest of a Guest
| date = 28 January 2011
| url = https://guestofaguest.com/new-york/interview/cyril-christo-and-marie-wilkinson-gofg-exclusive-interview-with-the-artists-and-activists
| access-date = 11 August 2019 }}
and has published several photography books about Africa that call attention to endangered animals such as elephants, leopards, giraffes, and lions.[https://la-chambre-claire.fr/livre/cyril-christo-lords-of-the-earth-the-entwined-destiny-of-wildlife-and-humanity/]Lords of the Earth: The Entwined Destiny of Wildlife and Humanity
as well as appeals for more stricter measures to enforce the protection of whales and polar bears.
Their son Lysander (born 22 September 2005){{Cite web |url=https://voicesforbiodiversity.org/about/eco-reporters/lysander-christo |title=Lysander Christo |website=voicesforbiodiversity.org |access-date=21 April 2019 }}{{Dead link|date=January 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}{{cite web |title=[no title cited] |website=WhartonDC |url=https://www.whartondc.com/article.html?aid=1437 |access-date=12 August 2019 }} has participated in their projects in East Africa from an early age.{{cite web |url=https://taosenvironmentalfilmfestival.com/2019/02/21/2019-film-festival/ |title=2019 Film Festival |date=21 February 2019 |website=taos environmental film festival |access-date=21 April 2019 |archive-date=21 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190421164308/https://taosenvironmentalfilmfestival.com/2019/02/21/2019-film-festival/ |url-status=dead }}{{Cite web|url=https://christoandwilkinsonphotography.com |title=Christo & Wilkinson |type=blog |website=Christo and Wilkinson Photography |access-date=21 April 2019 }} In 2007 they released a short documentary film titled Lysander's Song about the interactions between humans and elephants.{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2076267/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 |title=Lysander's Song |website=Internet Movie Database |access-date=21 April 2019}}{{cite magazine |title=Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson's Lysander's Song: Documenting Kenya's disappearing elephants |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2011/09/cyril-christo-and-marie-wilkinsons--i-lysanders-song--i---docume |access-date=21 April 2019 |magazine=Vanity Fair |date=22 September 2011 }}
Cyril Christo{{cite web |title=Cyril Christo |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0160466 |website=IMDB |accessdate=21 April 2019}} is the co-producer of A Stitch for Time: The Boise Peace Quilt Project,{{cite news
| last = O'Connor
| first = John J.
| title = Bridging 2 cultures via satellite
| newspaper = The New York Times
| date = 14 December 1988
| url = https://nyti.ms/29zrRma
| access-date = 11 August 2019 }}
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{{cite news
| last = Bourhill
| first = Colleen
| title = Boise Freeze Movement
| work = The University News – Boise State University
| date = 1 December 1982
| url = https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/61753926.pdf
| access-date = 11 August 2019 }}
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.{{cite web |url=http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lbc2ic/x-sclp0688/sclp_0688 |title=The National Peace Quilt |publisher=University of Michigan Library Digital Collections |access-date=11 August 2019 }}
|url=http://worldquilts.quiltstudy.org/americanstory/engagement/peaceprotest
| title = Peace and protest
| website = World quilts: The American story
| publisher = International Quilt Museum University of Nebraska-Lincoln
| access-date = 11 August 2019 }}
| last = Kolbert
| first = Elizabeth
| title = Quilters making an appeal for peace
| newspaper= The New York Times
| date = 10 October 1985
| url = https://nyti.ms/29pKigf
| access-date = 11 August 2019 }}
The film Walking Thunder: Ode to the African Elephant about Lysander's encounter with elephants in East Africa{{cite news |last1=Cannon |first1=John C. |title=Documenting the African elefant's ... |url=https://news.mongabay.com/2018/05/documenting-the-african-elephants-last-stand-qa-with-filmmaker-cyril-christo/ |accessdate=21 April 2019 |website=Mongabay |date=21 May 2018}} was screened at the 2019 Taos Environmental Film Festival.{{cite web |title=Taos Environmental Film Festival |url=https://taosenvironmentalfilmfestival.com/ |access-date=21 April 2019}}
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){{cite web |url=https://christoandwilkinsonphotography.com |title=Ghosts in the Grass |website=Christo and Wilkinson Photography |access-date=21 April 2019 }} {{ISBN|3862069443}}
- 2024: Wonder and the World: A Childhood Among the Species. Verlag Kettler. (with Marie Wilkinson and Lysander Christo) {{ISBN|3987410795}}
References
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Category:American documentary filmmakers
Category:American people of Bulgarian descent
Category:American people of French descent
Category:American nature photographers
Category:People from Santa Fe, New Mexico