SALAR de Uyuni in Bolivia is the world’s largest salt flat. At 12,000ft above sea level, it spans 4,000 square miles. Objects can appear brighter than normal in this landscape, photographer Gray Malin explains. That’s why he shot photographs of brightly coloured balloons and butterflies against this backdrop.

But the most popular images he shot in Bolivia were, in fact, of llamas. “Not only are they adorable,” he notes, “but they are social and friendly creatures.”

Malin is a photographer who has always sought to make the world look at its best. He’s a conceptual photographer with the common touch. As his new book, Gray Malin: The Essential Collection, shows, that can mean llamas and balloons on Bolivian salt plains, a camel in a hotel corridor or hundreds of inflatable rings in a swimming pool.

“Through my camera lens, I invite everyone on an incredible journey to amazing places around the world,” Malin says in the introduction.

The journey starts here.

The Herald:

Gray Malin: The Essential Collection, Abrams, £50. © 2021 Gray Malin