LONDON.- Robin Hanbury-Tenison, one of the greatest explorers of our time, is a tireless champion of the rights of tribal people and, in the early years of his travels, was an obsessive photographer of their homelands as they were eroded by the modern world. This exhibition at the National Theatre is a series of photographs and artefacts from Hanbury-Tenison’s personal archives, including his diary entries, which unearth beautiful insights into a vanished world.

Hanbury-Tenison photographed extensively and collected objects from remote tribal people while travelling during the 50s, 60s and 70s. These objects and images were unearthed recently to create the exhibition, many having not been looked at for fifty years.

Robin Hanbury-Tenison, OBE, (76) is a founder and president of Survival International, the world’s leading organisation supporting tribal peoples. He has been on over 30 expeditions, including as leader of the Royal Geographical Society’s largest expedition, taking 115 scientists to study the rainforests of Sarawak. This research and his book, Mulu: the Rainforest, were instrumental in galvanising international concern for tropical rainforests.

His publications, Echoes of a Vanished World: A Traveller's Lifetime in Pictures with an introduction by Joanne Harris and Beauty Freely Given: A Universal Truth, Artefacts from the Collection of Robin Hanbury-Tenison, are available to buy in the National Theatre Bookshop and online.