(b. 1945 - Dusseldorf, Germany) is an acclaimed film-maker who is best known for films such as "Paris, Texas," "Wings of Desire," and the "Buena Vista Social Club." This photograph is from a series titled, "Pictures From the Surface of the Earth," most of which was shot in the American West, Cuba and Israel. Since 1983, Wenders has developed a major body of photographic work from his travels which have taken him around the world. For Wenders, the "road" has held much allure and has been the driving force in his cinematic and photographic career. In his images of urban and rural landscapes, the essence of a place is captured and becomes the main force driving the narrative. They are stories unfolding within a single frame. Wenders wrote a poem called, "Places," in which he describes why he is drawn to photographing places: "As metaphorical as they may appear, places are always real. You can walk around in them or lie down on the ground. You can take a stone with you or a handful of sand. But you can't take the place with you....Some the places I photographed are about to disappear, might already have vanished from the surface of the Earth. They will only survive in photographs, or better: The memory of them will have to cling to the pictures we have of them." Wenders currently lives and works in Los Angeles and Berlin.