Conservation Photography

What is Conservation?
Conservation is the practice and caring for the resources of
culture, language, planet, species so all living things can
benefit from them now and in the future.
“The Power of Photography”
The Power of Photography

Photographs have an ability to connect with you and pique your

curiosity

Ken Burns, for example, says that he views the photograph as the basic building
block or DNA of his documentary film making. "Pictures," he says, "are often our
closest representation of the reality we're trying to come to terms with."
What is conservation photography?

Conservation Photography is the WHY of photography

These photographers are looking to cause some kind of awareness or action and
they use that photographic power to help facilitate change and connection
Jason Houston: Amazon’s Isolated Tribes
Doug Gimesy: Grey-Headed Flying Foxes
Krista Schlyer: The Borderlands
Jason Houston- Amazon's Isolated Tribes
Theme
- pressing issues in emerging countries, humanitarian perspective on
environmental issues
Inspiration
- through a NGO and their work
What change happened?
- the collaborations built around the images and the strategies for using the
images are essential if they are to have impact, worked with lawyers and
reporters to stop construction of a road through a national park
Ultimate goal
- loves learning from peoples' lives and sharing, wants to make the world a
place he wants to live in
Doug Gimesy- Grey-Headed Flying Foxes
Theme
- Animal welfare and conservation, Australian species
Inspiration
- The bats are animals close to home, took a few good photos and found an
organization that helped them, discovered the struggles they face
What change happened?
- More awareness on the importance on the species, series has been
published in multiple places, but doesn't know to what degree he has
changed peoples' minds
Ultimate goal
- To driving behavior and influence attitudes and beliefs
Krista Schlyer- The Borderlands
Theme
- Human impact on natural habitats
Inspiration
- Witnessed a bison struggling to cross the border, and talked with people living
on the border and found that species relied on both sides of the border
separation for survival
What change happened?
- Changed the perspective of thousands of people, found in a survey that by
seeing her photos, peoples' opinions on the wall's effect on wildlife changed
Ultimate goal
- To get people to consider other living creatures and the lives they are trying to
live and the challenges we present to their survival, to light a spark in their
consciousness about the non-human world.
 Houston Gimesy Schlyer

successes Exploring the Amazon Won Panda Photo story Award, and
talked about his work during his
speech to other photojournalists,
promoted the use of the term 'habitat
destruction' instead of 'habitat loss'
Photographs were shown in
the House and Senate, her
book has raised awareness
about the value of the
borderlands. Worked on a
campaign to help save Santa
Ana and in 2018, the US
Congress said no funding
could be used to build wall at
the Santa Ana National Wildlife
Refuge

struggles Difficult access, travel, Struggled emotionally when deciding When the Obama
language barriers, whether to take a photo or help an administration began building
unclean food and animal in stress, had to wait months wall, she had hoped our
water, insects, climate for specific photos he wanted to campaign had helped but
made being in the right take, general technical challenges realized that The Borderlands
place at the right time Project would be a lifelong
a struggle endeavor
What is conservation photography to conservation
photographers?
Houston
“Images that are motivated by the things we want to save and inspire with their
beauty, but that don’t advance the complicated and difficult conversations we need
to be having if we’re really serious about moving towards solutions. We need to
explore those complexities and compromises and find what makes us both
different and the same if we’re to eventually understand what needs to be done to
work together to protect what’s left of the planet and improve how we live on it
and with each other.”
What is conservation photography to conservation
photographers?

Gimesy
“It’s about getting people to treat the world more kindly, trying to create
powerful and impactful photo-stories that can be used to support conservation
projects and conservation outcomes. And those outcomes can be quite varied,
they can be changing policy, or they could be raising funds to back research, or
could be getting individuals to change, or not always change, but reinforce or
continue behavior or change behavior.”
What is conservation photography to conservation
photographers?
Schlyer
“For me it’s a way of communicating value and responsibility. We humans are
so very wrapped up in ourselves and our own comforts and joys. But the earth and
its other inhabitants are at the mercy of our ability and inclination to be less self
centered, to look out into a forest and see all the other lives being lived there, and
to see the beauty and value of all of those lives. I hope my work can help us see
and understand the natural world more deeply.”
Your Turn!