A Climate for Life

Fine Print Imaging and Art For Conservation are excited and honored to be working on the production of a traveling exhibit of images from the new book A Climate For Life: Meeting the Global Challenge . Sponsored by the Dean Witter Foundation, the exhibit will open in January, 2009 at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.

"A CLIMATE FOR LIFE: Meeting the Global Challenge examines the impact of climate change on biodiversity and focuses on the most important challenges currently facing life on our planet.
With a foreword co-authored by eminent Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson and actor Harrison Ford, and a comprehensive introduction by Conservation International scientists led by president Russ Mittermeier, A CLIMATE FOR LIFE examines the enormous impact of climate change on biodiversity and focuses on how nature itself might provide some of the solutions to this challenge.

A lavishly produced volume, CLIMATE FOR LIFE celebrates the diversity of life on earth, and is a call to action and a blueprint to preserve it. With additional text throughout written collaboratively by leading Conservation International scientists, a nonprofit organization that applies innovations in science, economics, policy and community participation to protect the Earth's biodiversity around the world. the book’s ten chapters cover the most important and urgent issues concerning climate change and biodiversity today.

From intense pressure on already stressed flora and fauna, to the implications of polar meltdown, the book explores the effects of rising temperatures on both the land and in oceans across the globe. That said, the book is not all doom and gloom as A CLIMATE FOR LIFE also examines potential and practical solutions and devotes a number of chapters to exploring existing answers. Illustrated with over 175 photographs by esteemed members of the International League of Conservation Photographers, a nonprofit organization that uses the power of photography to help educate the world and to further conservation goals, A CLIMATE FOR LIFE features images from world-class talents including noted wildlife photographer Frans Lanting, glacier photographer James Balog, and endangered species photographer Joel Sartore.

The book includes eleven photography "features" in which the photographers, as eyewitnesses in the field, are interviewed about their first-hand experiences recording the effects of climate change on the environment. Frans Lanting reports in the book that after photographing the same spot in Africa that was shot 100 years ago “…it’s one of those rare instances where you can see extinction in progress before your eyes.”

Powerfully combining both images and offerings, A CLIMATE FOR LIFE, is the result of leading scientists and veteran photographers contributing their talents to showcase the topics, issues, and challenges that society must urgently face, and the book’s lasting impression is that ultimately the responsibility is literally and figuratively in our hands."

Watch A Climate for Life Multimedia piece HERE!

Mark Lukes to give presentation on the work of ILCP

Photographs That Tell the Conservation Story

A presentation by Mark Lukes on the International League of Conservation Photographers at The Center for Fine Art Photography

“The concept of conservation photography has been proposed out of the need to make a distinction between the creation of images for the sake of photography and the creation of images to serve the purpose of conserving nature,” said Cristina Mittermeier, founder and executive director of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP).

Conservation photography is born out of purpose. Rather than simply showing us the beauty of nature – which it can do - its mission is to protect nature.

Join Mark Lukes, ILCP Executive Committee member, president of Art for Conservation and Fine Print Imaging, on Tuesday, November 18, 7:00 – 8:00 p.m., for an evening of conservation imagery and the stories behind the images.

Lukes will share images of ILCP and National Geographic photographers like Art Wolfe, Frans Lanting, Florian Schulz, Joel Sartore, Beverly Joubert and many others.

The Center for Fine Art Photography is currently hosting an Exhibit entitled “Our Environment; the Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. There is an additional display of images from internationally renowned ILCP photographers in the South Gallery.

Want to make a difference with your photography?

If you are one of those people who wants to make a difference in the world with your photography, you might want to check out the activities of a friend of ours, Joe Riis.

We met Joe a few years ago when he was still a student at the University of Wyoming and he was selected as one of 10 scholarship students to attend a North American Nature Photography Summit. Since then Joe has been verrry busy. With a network of people and organizations, Joe developed a media campaign to raise awareness of the conservation needs of the Missouri River ecosystem. The conservation photography project titled "Missouri River EXPOSED" focused on the Missouri River as well as the three federally listed endangered species that depend on the river.

This quote from Joe will give you a good feel for what motivates him in his work:

"I feel the duty to protect the places I love, for my future generations, for the entire planet; through the lens of a camera I believe I can accomplish this feat. Photography can be used to change societal thought and action by combining captivating images along with credible science. I want to use my knowledge in Wildlife Biology and Environment & Natural Resources and combine it with my passion for nature photography.

With my photography, I believe I can link the public to credible science with photographs through popular publications, exhibitions, and presentations. I believe that I can change the ideas and actions of everyone from the general public, to religious leaders, to our policy makers with my images. In the end, if I can help protect the natural environment and its processes through my photography, I will essentially be protecting the health and future of the human species."

For more details on the project (and on Joe), check out his website at www.joeriis.com

In his current project, "Pronghorn Passage", Joe partners with writer Emeline Ostlind to bring attention to the growing threats to the critical migration corridor for the pronghorn herds which migrate 170 miles from Grand Teton National Park to the Red Desert in Wyoming.
The website for this project is worth a visit and take some time to check out their blog as well as audio and video pieces. http://www.pronghornpassage.com/

If you don't come away from visiting Joe's sites with renewed inspiration for the power of your own photography, then you're not paying attention!

Voices Behind the Camera - ILCP Photographer Cristina Mittermeier

Please meet a fearless woman, wonderful photographer and a true friend of the earth and all of it's peoples :

CRISTINA GOETTSCH MITTERMEIER
The relationship between nature and humans is where Cristina Mittermeier’s photography finds its true mission. The idea that people and nature are not isolated from each other, but are inexorably connected, lies at the heart of her work. This relationship is particularly poignant when it comes to indigenous people and this where Cristina’s images truly shine. Her work has taken her to 54 countries, including some of the most remote and beautiful areas of our planet.

As a photographer since 1996, Cristina has help produce 8 books, including a series published with Conservation International and Cemex. Megadiversity: Earth's Wealthiest Countries for Biodiversity (1996), Hotspots: Earth's biologically richest and most endangered ecoregions (1998), Wilderness Areas: Earth's Last Wild Places (2002), Wildlife Spectacles (2003), Hotspots Revisited (2005), and Transboundary Conservation: A New Vision for Protected Areas (2005), and Pantanal: South America’s Wetland Jewel (2005) are all part of that series.

Her latest book project, The Human Footprint, was produced with the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York in conjunction with her own organization, the ILCP. Cristina serves as Executive Director of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP), a prestigious group of photographers which she founded in 2005.

From the popular to the scientific, her work has appeared in major magazines around the world including Nature's Best, Latina, Elan, National Geographic, National Geographic Explorer and American Photo in the United States, Rumbos, Escala and Sale la Foto, in Mexico, Explorador and Terra in Brazil, Man and Biosphere in China, among others.Cristina serves in the Advisory Board of Nature's Best Foundation and is a Board Member of the WILD Foundation.
Visit Cristina's Website

Cristina's images may be purchased at Digital Railroad or Fine Print Imaging

Listen now to the voice behind the camera of Cristina Mittermeier:

Noted Photographer Tom Vezo Dies

Tom Vezo, a widely known and admired professional wildlife photographer, died Friday, July 18th while hiking with a friend in the Rincon Mountains near his Arizona home. Tom was 61 and is survived by his wife Dorothy and 2 stepdaughters.

Tom is widely known for his superb bird photography but has amassed an impressive photo collection of over 40,000 images featuring a wide variety of subjects and has been widely published in both the US and Europe.

He has been an ardent supporter of the preservation of the Madera Canyon near his home in Green Valley, Arizona. His wife, Dorothy, has asked that memorial contributions be made to the Defenders of Madera Canyon. http://www.friendsofmaderacanyon.org/default.htm

To find out more about Tom and his lifetime of excellent photographic work, visit his website.
http://www.tomvezo.com/

He will be missed.