For the past five years, photographer Rachel Sussman has been traversing the globe in search of the world's oldest living organisms. What she has created is a collection of photos that spans millennia, featuring life ... suspended in time.

“It’s a photography book, it’s a travel log, it’s a lot of different things – it’s just a fascinating exploration of a kind of life that most of us don’t know anything about,” renowned science writer Carl Zimmer, who contributed to the book, said. “They show us this timeline that we’re a part of.”

Sussman chose to focus on plants and animals that have been continuously living for more than two thousand years, with the oldest being over 80,000 years old. 

"These ancient survivors have weathered millennia, but climate change and human encroachment have put many of them in danger," she said. "The Oldest Living Things in the World is a record and celebration of our past, a call to action in the present, and a barometer of our future."

She has worked closely with biologists to help uncover the mysteries of these ethereal organisms, in the hope of drawing attention to their resilience. 

"I’ve chosen living things as my subjects because it’s about connecting to an experience of being alive,” she said. "It’s my hope that I can play a part in ensuring their continued longevity into the foreseeable future."

The full set of images and information about these incredible creatures can be seen on her website.