To help save endangered species, Joel Sartore takes their pictures

Joel Sartore, a National Geographic Explorer and photographer, spent the last week mostly in his car. For five days, he’s been ping-ponging between zoos, aquariums, and animal rehabilitation centers across the Eastern United States to document everything from rare lizard species to endangered elephants. 

In his quest to photograph every species of birds, fish, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates living in human care over the past two decades, he’s at times kept up a pace of more than 100 animals per month. The growing catalog forms the National Geographic Photo Ark, a multi-year project that aims to document every species and raise awareness and inspire action to save them. With the 15,000th species photographed this year, Sartore says candidly, but in good spirits, “I am exhausted.”

On a recent trip, he packed up his Toyota RAV4 Hybrid nearly full to the ceiling with equipment and set off from his home in Lincoln, Nebraska at 5 a.m. Nine hundred miles later, at around 10 at night, he arrived in Chattanooga, Tennessee and set his alarm to get to a wildlife rehabilitation center by nine in the morning. 

He photographed a Blackburnian warbler, and drove to an aquarium for five or six fish, mostly freshwater. Then, he worked on the vintage house in which he stayed. His host’s crystal door knobs “just spun and spun,” Sartore said. So he stayed up late into the night doing repairs and was on the road again by 3 a.m.

His subjects at the Atlanta Amphibian Foundation were a frosted flatwoods salamander, projected to go extinct in the next decade if population declines are not reversed, and an albino monocled cobra. “It hooded up and stood up in my shooting tent, all the while flicking his little tongue.”

Into the weekend, he traveled to Gate City, Va., to photograph a sooty mangabey, a white-throated capuchin, and a pair of grivet monkeys at the local zoo. Then on to Slade, Kentucky, to see some of the world’s most venomous snakes. “You know the deadly asp from the Bible? It has teeth sticking out the side of his mouth so when he springs from his little coil. He slashes, and if he cuts you, there’s no antivenom, you know?”

By Monday, it was a mother and baby elephant in Indianapolis, after a stop at The Home Depot for photography lights that a team of 12 helped maneuver through the bars of the zoo’s elephant barn. Nine hours on the road later, with the usual drive-through meal in his lap, Sartore arrived back home in Lincoln around midnight. “That’s just what you have to do to make this thing come together,” he says. “You’ve got to be into it. I’ve been excited about photographing animals since I was a little boy.” 

'Without them [animals] we are nothing'

Since he founded Photo Ark in 2006, Sartore has been making portraits of every animal in human care, so far at more than 700 zoos, aquariums, and wildlife centers around the world. For the project’s latest milestone, Sartore photographed the 15,0000th species, the Miami tiger beetle. Endemic to the pine rocklands in Southern Florida, it’s about the size of a sunflower seed. The beetle’s habitat is a focus for Sartore’s fellow Explorer, George Gann, who is working to restore the pine rocklands in hopes of protecting and recovering the beetle and other species. His project is funded through Photo Ark’s Species Impact Initiative, which leverages Sartore’s images and provides funding to support on-the-ground conservation efforts.

Since Photo Ark got its start, some species photographed have recovered their populations for the first time in decades. When Sartore documented the Florida grasshopper sparrow in 2012, there were just a handful of surviving females. Sartore’s pictures splashed the cover of Audubon Magazine, bringing visibility to the seldom seen bird, and incentivized more generous government spending on a captive breeding program that continues its work today. 

Other animals that were thought to have already disappeared, like the long-toothed dart moth, considered extinct since 1980, were discovered to be alive through Photo Ark. A few have lamentably disappeared since the project’s inception.

Most of the animals Sartore has worked with have never had their picture taken. “At least, not so you could find them somewhere,” he says. “Some of them have never been photographed alive.”

“When I was little I wanted to be a zoo director, or zoo keeper,” Sartore says, holding up a fiberglass swordfish in his office—it’s a replica of one his grandfather caught. “Without them [animals] we are nothing, that’s what the world needs to realize” he implores. “The little secret is when we save these other species, we’re saving ourselves. We cannot live without clean air, clean water, stable rainfall, good soil, and good food. We have to have all these things.”

2023 marks the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The protection law has saved 99 percent of listed species from extinction. Like the ESA, Sartore’s work is helping ensure even the smallest creatures aren’t left behind. The Photo Ark, which also includes videos, has been used by conservation organizations and individuals to draw public awareness and fund conservation efforts. The images have been featured as giant building projections, traveling exhibitions, books, and stories in National Geographic Magazine.

The simple black and white backgrounds emphasize a tiger’s whiskers, just the same as the probing antennae of a butterfly. Sartore’s style works as a great equalizer. The animals appear to lock eyes with the audience—an intentional move to draw people in. “It’s kind of a trick to get people into the tent of conservation with that cute monkey face, or that beautiful giant clam displaying its colors, then hoping that people can put together what happens to all these animals, happens to us.”

When Sartore isn’t on the road, he’s calling up zoos and aquariums, asking crews which species are comfortable being on set and for how long, and determining if a backdrop can be brought or will have to be built. 

A photograph can take as little as two minutes to take, and months to plan. Overall, most of the work is in the preparation. A bird might take ten minutes, whereas photographing larger animals could mean a couple of hours; it all depends on the animal’s size. “The ideal photo shoot is no drama. We want to get the animals looking their best and get them back to where they go, fast,” he says.

“Something that other photographers don’t have to deal with is that my subjects poop all over the set,” he laughs. 

He’s often asked about memorable encounters; people expect the work has left some scars. But he insists the time he spends in the eye of a deadly creature, or any of his animal subjects, is purposefully limited. Working as a Wildlife Photographer for National Geographic Magazine for 17 years exposed him to more danger than now.

“Those stories led to insect-borne disease like mucocutaneous leishmaniasis, which is a flesh-eating parasite,” he recalls. “I also got exposed to the Marburg virus through hot bat poop directly in my eye. It’s a lot like Ebola, but fortunately I didn’t get it, or I might not be here today.”

His work isn’t for everyone. Even his kids, fans of traveling the world, have reservations about accompanying Sartore on projects.

On a trip with one of his sons, the father and son worked from dark to dark, six days a week. Sartore promised a single Sunday of rest, a day to explore. They lugged equipment around European zoos, chasing opportunities to contribute to the Photo Ark. “The reality is not what people think. It’s not all fun,” Sartore admits. Exhausted on the plane ride home, his son commented his favorite part of the trip was when he was asleep. “He said it was because he was unconscious,” Sartore laughs. 

His daughter shares the sentiment, having accompanied her father on one photography spree. “I’ll go anywhere in the world with you,” she tells him. “But if you bring that camera gear, I’m out.”

Sartore believes there are tangible steps anyone can take toward mitigating the crisis of disappearing species. “They say if you want to save a walrus, wear a sweater. By heating your house less, you’re throwing less carbon into the air. We also can get people interested in pollinator gardens, right in our own yards. It’s imperative that people know there’s a lot we can do.”

The Photo Ark is simple, Sartore explains. “We are basically opening the door into learning about the natural world. That’s our whole thing, to entertain people and get them hooked.” 

Sometime after this call, Sartore will sit in the kitchen with his wife of 38 years and will edit each session together. “She’ll pick one or two from each species, then sometimes we’ll argue. Most of the time I listen to her because she has no skin in the game and she’s brutal.”

At the time of this interview, Sartore already has his next shoots lined up. He’ll head to Maryland to take pictures of a raucous toad, a Delmarva fox squirrel, and a Tonkean macaque. “Then I go to Eastern Europe for two weeks, then I’m home for the holidays. That’ll be good,” he says. Though, he expects to still be sending emails over the holidays.

In curating the Photo Ark, “There’s not a month that goes by that I don’t see something that’s going to go extinct imminently,” Sartore says. It makes the work of immortalizing the biodiversity landscape, as it stands now, all the more important. Still, he remains optimistic about the future. 

“I’m constantly meeting people that never give up, and they’re real heroes to me. The 100-year-old who plants a fruit tree, just because it’s the right thing to do. You cannot give up or be down on things when you see so many people that are really fighting hard to save the planet. I want to be just like them when I grow up.”

ABOUT THE WRITER
For the National Geographic Society: Natalie Hutchison is a Digital Content Producer for the Society. She believes authentic storytelling wields power to connect people over the shared human experience. In her free time she turns to her paintbrush to create visual snapshots she hopes will inspire hope and empathy.