Photographer Joel Sartore’s interest in animal species and extinction was first piqued as a child, when he saw an image of Martha, the last passenger pigeon, who died in 1914, in a book belonging to his parents. Since then, he’s traveled the world, taking pictures of more than 17,000-plus species, often at risk, as founder of the National Geographic Photo Ark—a project working to document every species living in zoos, aquariums and wildlife sanctuaries.

He’ll come to Sarasota this month to show some of his images and share stories of his work, in a Ringling College Town Hall program at the Van Wezel. Sartore has worked tirelessly, not only as a photographer, but as a writer, speaker and teacher, hoping to inspire others to do what they can to protect wildlife and habitats. 

Sartore has produced many books and appeared on many television programs exploring his photography. He first started working for National Geographic nearly 35 years ago. When his wife, Kathy, got breast cancer, he stayed home to take care of her and their three kids. But, he says, “Kathy and I decided if she got better, I would start doing portraits of small animals that never get the time of day. Nobody does stories on sparrows or toads or salamanders. I could see a lot of these animals would never have their voices heard; most of them, people would never know about.”

So, through the use of studio lighting, clean black and white backgrounds and close-up images with no size comparison—in his portraits, a mouse is the same size as an elephant—he allows viewers to look his subjects right in the eye.

“If people can fall in love with them the way I have,” he says of the animals, “hopefully they will care and want to save species and habitats.”

Sartore works primarily in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea, while two other Ark taxonomists take on Western Europe, Asia, the United Kingdom and the rest of the world. “We’re trying to get portraits of every animal [species] in human care,” he says, “zoos, aquariums, refuges, captive breeders. It’s to show people what biodiversity looks like at this point in time, to try to
lessen the impact of extinction. We also give lift to the people who are good stewards of these species.”

In his nearly 20 years on the project, Sartore has seen a handful of species go extinct. He himself photographed the last Rabb’s fringe-limbed treefrog, in the Atlanta Botanical Garden. “He was sweet,” Sartore recalls. “He hopped on my camera and on my hand, and he looked at me, very hard.”

Another endangered animal Sartore hopes to be able to photograph is the Java rhino, of which only 70 or so exist. “I’ve been trying to capture that for 30 years,” he says. “On the island of Java, the Indonesian government is going to try a captive breeding program for them. We’ll see.”

But while Sartore feels sadness about the losses he’s seen, his message is often more about hope—and action. “I just want people to know they don’t have to be a globetrotting National Geographic photographer to make the world a better place,” he says. “People can start in their own back yards, just by not applying herbicides and pesticides, and by growing native plant yards. They can be exciting and beautiful, and it just takes a little thought. We have to start creating ornamental lawns not only for butterflies but other pollinating insects. We can’t live without insects. Without insects, birds can’t live, because they feed their babies insects. Without even the smallest creatures among us, we can’t survive.”

Sartore spends perhaps 40 percent of a typical year on the road, returning home when he’s able to his native Nebraska. While photographing every type of animal he can, he says, that passenger pigeon Martha “has been on my mind the whole time. How can we reduce billions [of birds] to one? I spend my life working on this. We can’t stop extinctions, but we can slow them.”

Sartore speaks at both 10:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Feb. 23 at the Van Wezel; to see if tickets are available, call (941) 309-5101 or go to ringlingcollegetownhall.org.