Conservation Photography
ART, SCIENCE AND A JOURNEY TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH
Written by Elizabeth St John// Photography by Cristina Mittermeier
An interview with Cristina Mittermeier
On a rainy Saturday afternoon in New York City’s artist-centric SoHo neighborhood, an entrance queue had formed for the long-awaited opening of the Paul Nicklen Gallery. It was Earth Day, and hundreds had come out to see the world renowned National Geographic photo-journalists, Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier in person.
A fisherman dives in the shallow coral reefs to spear fish, Abrolhos, Calaveras, Brazil
The gallery was packed. Wall to wall people discussed the striking images, some shown for the very first time to the public, as Paul signed copies of his “Polar Obsession” book, Cristina had positioned herself at the entrance, personally greeting each visitor with a smile, patiently answering questions and just generally making everyone feel at home with her characteristic Mexican warmth.
Cristina is a force for nature. A few years back, she and Paul Nicklen teamed up to form SeaLegacy. The purpose? To create powerful images and media that inspire people to act and thus protect our fragile oceans. A marine biologist by education, and award winning photographer; for two decades she has focused her lens on the fragile human-nature balance, particularly on human wellbeing and healthy ecosystems. She has produced 24 stunning coffee table books focused on conservation issues, she is the founder and former president of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP); is a member of the elite Sony Artisans of Imagery group, sits on the board of the WILD Foundation, is part of the Chairman’s Council for Conservation International and is on the advisory board for Wild Seas and Waters Program and the Marine Wilderness 10+10 Project.
I met Cristina while we were both with Conservation International, over a decade ago. Though often continents apart, we have managed to remain in touch through our mutual love of art, nature and the indigenous peoples we both care so much about. Intrigued by the gallery opening, I decided to sit down with her over coffee and get her feedback on how art can help save the world.
King penguins (Aptenodytes patagonicus).
Elizabeth St John: You’ve often spoken of the hardships and isolation of your time on assignment, can you shed a little light on what you think about during these long periods alone?
Cristina Mittermeier: I am always so happy not to be in the office, the hardships are the least of my worries. Lately I have been working a lot in regions of the world that are really cold, and I just have to remember that, in an hour, when I get out of the water, and I can take a nice hot shower, there will be a nice cup of tea waiting for me and I will be fine. (laughter)
So the hardships never last too long, and it helps me to focus on the fact that we are really working on a larger mission, trying to inspire people and if you keep that in mind while you’re working on a situation that’s difficult, the hardships will go away a lot faster.
Madagascar
As a visual artist with several decades worth of images, what would you say is the most important message of your body of work?
Its interesting when you look at a body of work that spans two decades, and you go back to the very beginning to realize, that the focus of your work has never really changed. For me, its always been about connecting humans to nature, and the more I delve into it, the more I’m thinking is about its connecting humans specifically to the oceans, to the waters edge, to our reliance on healthy ecosystems and to the sacred ecology that peoples that still remember how to live sustainably on this planet.
Cabo Pulmo Marine Protected Area, Baja california, Mexico
Having accomplished so much already as both an artist and conservationist, you’ve recently co-founded SeaLegacy with fellow photographer and biologist Paul Nicklen. What are your goals for the next few years for both SeaLegacy and you personally as an artist?
We specifically chose to work around the theme of oceans because it is the largest ecosystem on our planet, the most important ecosystem for planetary stability and its one that has been difficult to photograph. We really wanted to shine a light on the issues and the solutions and the importance of the ocean so for the next 10 years we are going to be carrying out expeditions to the far reaches of the oceans, trying to find stories of success, places that are threatened and challenged, and in need of help. We are trying to inspire people to join in our journey digitally but also help us to find solutions to create a better planet.
Falkland Islands NG Assignment/SeaLegacy
Your work is an inspiration to your photographers around the world. What advice would you offer to them, and what challenges can they expect?
The single most important advice I can give to a young photographer is to find that “thing” that he or she is passionate about and wrap the photography around it. Photography is a very difficult career it’s a long, long journey to achieve any tangible results, and if you’re not passionate about what you’re doing, its going to be very difficult to sustain over the long term. Whereas, if you find that thing, that’ you’re passionate about, whether you make, or not as a photographer, you will still be making a difference.
Greenland Expedition Last Ice 2015
What triggered your career change from biologist to photographer?
It was the need to communicate. The fact that science is a very dry and elitist way of communicating to people. People don’t really read scientific reports, so photography was just a more democratic and available way to communicate and share.
Falkland Islands NG Assignment/SeaLegacy
Having come in contact with wildlife most people never get to experience; what’s been your favorite encounter thus far?
I really enjoy spending time with animals…any kind…especially big ones, but I have to say that most amazing experiences have been centered around swimming with orcas because so very few people get to do it and its SUCH a big animal, and they are so intelligent. Because of the way they communicate, through echo-location, you can FEEL how they are sensing what you are and where you are…you can feel the echo-location passing through your body. So even if I don’t understand what the orca is saying I know that its talking to me. Its amazing.
BC Coast/SeaLegacy
Tell me a little bit about your adopted home of the Salish Sea in British Columbia, and why its so important to you it be protected?
Its very interesting, Canada has the largest coastline of any country. It has coastline on 3 major oceans, the Pacific, the Arctic and the Atlantic and of the G20 countries, Canada is the one that has the least marine protection in the world. So its really embarrassing. Canada is a signatory of the Convention of Biological Diversity so they have committed, like everybody else, to protected 20% of their coastline by 2020. Today they have protected less than 0.1%. So it is really embarrassing.
The Salish Sea, where I live, its my backyard, is one of the most productive, beautiful, wonderful really, seas in the world. It goes from Puget Sound to Campbell River, we have some of the largest herring spawn in the world, huge salmon runs, humpbacks, orcas, a vibrant underwater ecosystem where everything is covered in life – and at the same time, it’s a coastline that’s suffering great industrial development very quickly.
So we wanted to propose the Salish Sea as a World Heritage Site, and change the narrative around the future of the Salish Sea to say, you know, we have a decision to make and we can choose to be an industrial coastline or we can choose to be super natural British Columbia.
Alea’a and Nawaii Puu, tandem board in Makaha Beach, Oahu, Hawaii
What can our readers do to get more involved with SeaLegacy and conservation in general?
At SeaLegacy we are about to launch a partnership with a new app that is going to change the way that we do commerce through social media, and the way that we engage with the charities and retailers that we interact with every day. When this app goes live, its called KARGOE, we are going to be using the power of our social media reach to change the way that we interact with nature and how we consume. So instead of a customer buying a one of your wedding dresses from Nordstrom’s, for example, you are going to be able to KARGOE it directly from Elizabeth St John and we are going to eliminate the middle-man. Its all going to be done through your social network, and that way, we are going to stop making millionaires that rape and pillage nature and give the power back to the people.
Cristina’s work will be featured at the Paul Nicklen gallery in New York City beginning June 10th, World Oceans Day. To learn more about her, and purchase some of her images, please visit her website: www.CristinaMittermeier.com.
To learn more about her work with her partner Paul Nicklen, and how you can be part of the conservation conversation, please visit their website; www.SeaLegacy.org
Elizabeth, a climatologist and ethnographer by education, currently follows her other passions as a couture fashion and accessories designer when not engaging with nature. Her eco-collections can be found on her websites: www.ElizabethStJohn.com and www.HaydenHarlow.com
Conservation Photography
National Geographic Explorer Thomas Peschak to Receive 2025 Eliza Scidmore Award for Outstanding Storytelling
This year’s award recognizes Peschak’s legacy of visually illuminating ecosystems, including the people advocating for them, while connecting audiences to the importance of conservation
Award-winning photographer and National Geographic Explorer Thomas P. Peschak will receive the National Geographic Society’s 2025 Eliza Scidmore Award for Outstanding Storytelling for his long legacy of conservation storytelling at National Geographic and beyond.
The award — named for the writer and photographer Eliza Scidmore, the first woman elected to the Society’s Board of Trustees in 1892 — recognizes individuals whose work focuses on immersive storytelling to advance our understanding of the environmental and conservation issues we face, with the ultimate goal of supporting societies in making the best decisions for a healthier planet.
The award — named for the writer and photographer Eliza Scidmore, the first woman elected to the Society’s Board of Trustees in 1892 — recognizes individuals whose work focuses on immersive storytelling to advance our understanding of the environmental and conservation issues we face, with the ultimate goal of supporting societies in making the best decisions for a healthier planet.
While Peschak began his career training as a marine biologist specializing in human-wildlife interactions, he eventually moved to photojournalism after realizing his impact on conservation could be greater through storytelling to inspire change. Now, Peschak’s accomplishments are world-renowned, with 18 Wildlife Photographer of the Year wins, seven World Press Photo Awards, and most recently, the 2024 Wildlife Photojournalist Story Award — all for his significant work documenting some of the most crucial conservation stories of our time.
“Tom’s work is rooted in a commitment to drive meaningful impact. Whether documenting vital ecosystems, the plight of at-risk species or the stories of communities, his images open our eyes to the world, make it clear what’s at stake and inspire us to act,” said Jill Tiefenthaler, CEO of the National Geographic Society. “Tom’s dedication to illuminating and protecting the wonder of our world defines his work, and it’s why we are deeply honored to present him with the 2025 Eliza Scidmore Award for Outstanding Storytelling.”
Most recently, he was the lead storyteller on the National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet Amazon Expedition, a multiyear series of solutions-centered science expeditions spanning the entire Amazon River Basin. Working with fellow Explorers and local communities, Peschak immersed himself in the basin for 396 days to reveal its aquatic and wetland habitats. The single-topic October issue of the National Geographic magazine was devoted entirely to Peschak’s stunning images of the Amazon Expedition. Starting with ice axes and crampons in the icy high Andes and finishing with scuba gear in the Atlantic Ocean, he created the first-of-its-kind comprehensive photographic archive of our planet’s most iconic and biodiverse river system.
To date, Peschak has photographed 20 National Geographic magazine features on various subjects, including manta rays, sea turtles, climate change in Antarctica and the global seabird crisis, the latter of which resulted from a Society grant in 2017. Seeking to address the loss of 230 million seabirds over 60 years, Peschak mined archives for images of seabird colonies in Peru taken 100 years ago and re-photographed those same locations, presenting these images side by side in an innovative multimedia display to visualize this staggering absence in the hopes of protecting this ecologically critical and unique species.
In addition to his extraordinary photojournalistic work, Peschak has written and photographed eight books, including “Sharks and People,” which chronicles the relationship between people and sharks around the world, and “Wild Seas,” a collection of photos taken by Peschak documenting the beauty and fragility of underwater life and wild coastlines from around the world. He has also appeared as a speaker for the National Geographic Live! series, having presented over 20 shows in 15 cities on three continents.
“Photography and storytelling aren’t just about highlighting places with unique biodiversity, especially when areas like the Amazon basin are under siege every day from issues like overfishing, pollution and climate change,” said Peschak. “To capture the full scale, it’s imperative to highlight these challenges as well as the people who are facing them head-on: local communities, Indigenous peoples, researchers and other Explorers. The goal and hope with my work has always been to photograph places I love in order to help save them, so it is a true honor to receive this award and get to continue to work on important stories of conservation.”
While remaining a cornerstone of storytelling work at the Society, Peschak continues to focus on marine conservation storytelling more broadly, serving as the director of storytelling for the Save our Seas Foundation — an organization he has been an integral part of for almost two decades. He is also a founding director of the Manta Trust and a senior fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers.
Peschak will be honoured as the 2025 Eliza Scidmore Award recipient during the annual National Geographic Society Storytellers Summit in February 2025. To learn more about Peschak and other Explorers’ work, visit our website here.
ABOUT THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY
The National Geographic Society is a global nonprofit organization that uses the power of science, exploration, education and storytelling to illuminate and protect the wonder of our world. Since 1888, National Geographic has pushed the boundaries of exploration, investing in bold people and transformative ideas, providing more than 15,000 grants for work across all seven continents, reaching 3 million students each year through education offerings, and engaging audiences around the globe through signature experiences, stories and content.
Conservation Photography
Manta Ray Magic: Witnessing a Feeding Frenzy in the Great Barrier Reef – Photography by Aliya Siddiqi
While working at an island that’s known as “the home of the manta ray,” it’s easy for most of us staff to get jaded at seeing one or two manta rays…per day. Maybe they do a quick cruise past, or maybe a stop at the cleaning station. But when these mantas do aggregate around this small island on the Great Barrier Reef, those are the days that turn into pure magic. And it reminds us all as to why these animals are so spectacular to interact with.
Manta rays, more specifically Manta alfredi, are unique in the contrast between their large size and inquisitive behavior around humans. Despite reaching average lengths of three to five meters wingtip to wingtip, they are filter feeders and seek out the smallest creatures in the ocean to feed on. The diets of manta rays are found to consist mostly of different types of zooplankton, small creatures that range from microscopic single-celled organisms to the larvae of larger animals like crabs, octopuses, and fish. Zooplankton are heterotrophic, meaning that they obtain their energy from feeding on other organisms including phytoplankton and other zooplankton. In this photo series, all of those small dots sparkling in the photos indicate a high number of plankton.
According to scientists studying the island aggregation site, the higher biomass of zooplankton seems to be a result of “local concentration and retention processes around the island”. Though still unknown why these zooplankton blooms around the island happen, when it does become what we call “manta soup,” the foraging behaviour of the manta rays gives guests and staff some unforgettable experiences. The elasmobranchs ensure filter-feeding efficiency by looping around consistently in nutrient-dense areas. All one must do is stay in that same spot and wait for the mantas to swoop in and detour around you – though with strong currents, this is often more easily said than done. However, some days you get lucky when the weather window blesses you with no wind, high zooplankton biomass, and an influx of manta rays.
These photos come from a day like that, making it almost too easy for an amateur photographer like me to capture these charismatic animals. The mantas were swooping in and out, with some of the females displaying quite pregnant bellies. Like any aggregation site, tourism operators greatly benefit from the frequency at which these animals appear. Their docile and curious nature also makes them excellent flagship species for marine conservationists. Listed as Vulnerable to Extinction by the IUCN, these experiences with the public allow for an opportunity to discuss the challenges our oceans are facing, and why protection is of the utmost importance.
Conservation Photography
Cleaning Stations & Coastal Cruising – Under the Waves with Karim Iliya, October 2024
This is a turtle cleaning station. You can see the turtle in the back getting cleaned by a fish which eats parasites and algae off the turtle’s skin, shell, and scales. The turtle in the front is waiting its turn. This is a symbiotic relationship in which the turtles get cleaned, and the fish get a meal.
A Hawaiian green sea turtle cruises beneath the waves off the coast of Hawaii. This turtle was eating algae off the rocks, seemingly unaffected by the powerful turbulent water all around. When not eating algae, these turtles spend much of their time laying on the nearby beach .
Karim was published in National Geographic magazine for his humpback whale photography. He now leads his own trips so that others can swim with whales.
If you are interested in swimming with or photographing humpback whales, Karim guides people on small trips between August and October every year in Tonga. Visit www.dancewithwhales.com to find out more
To see more of Karim’s work, visit his website at www.karimphotography.com
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