Our Vanishing Future: Photographs and Illustrations
Paul Bannick
Artist Statement: The Northern Spotted Owl is listed as “Threatened” under the US Endangered Species Act and “Endangered” in Canada. Northern Spotted Owls require contiguous stands of conifer forests with complex old-growth characteristics such as multiple canopies, standing dead trees and downed woody debris. Fragmentation and elimination of these forests, as well as displacement by the invasive, larger and more aggressive Barred Owls have made species recovery difficult.
Conservation is my life mission. My photography is the best tool I have to build empathy for species and landscapes that most people will never see.
April Bencze
Artist Statement: Wild salmon are vital for the health of countless species and ecosystems, not just on the coast, but stretching into the heart of North America by way of great rivers. They feed everything from coastal wolves to ancient trees, helping to create the oxygen we breathe by flooding our forests with nutrients. There is a reason communities are built around salmon rivers. Facing threats to their survival such as climate change, open net-pen salmon farming, habitat destruction, and dams, wild salmon runs are a fraction of what they used to be, and lost entirely in certain river systems.
Kerri Farley
Artist Statement: The Monarch Butterfly, as with all pollinators, is important specifically because it is a pollinator. But it isn't just a pollinator, it is an environmental indicator. Their decline lets us know that things aren't quite right with our environment.
Michael Forsberg
Artist Statement: Grassland birds are declining faster than any other group of birds in North America, and it ought to tell us something. The Lesser-prairie chicken is case in point: their populations and their habitats are diminishing rapidly due to continued agricultural plow up and energy development in the Southern Plains, and they are on a path to an Endangered Species listing.
The vast Great Plains was once an American Serengeti. Today it is transformed landscape, a vital breadbasket, energy pump, and one of our most endangered ecosystems. Prairie grouse species need large intact healthy grasslands to survive, and so do we. Grasslands protect our water supplies, build our soils, grow our pollinators, sequester carbon and harbor diversity. These birds and their struggles serve as both warning and rallying cry for grassland conservation. Economy and ecology must co-exist here. The future of all prairie citizens is at stake.
Steven Gnam
Artist Statement: Whitebark pines grow in the harshest mountain environments of North America. For thousands of years they have survived high winds, avalanches, and the dry and shallow soils of the subalpine ecosystem. The whitebark pine is a source of food for many species, a shelter for plants and animals where few other trees grow, and an anchor that prevents avalanches and erosion. In the past fifty years, 90 percent of whitebark pines in most areas of the Rockies have died due to white pine blister rust, the effects of fire suppression, and mountain pine beetles.
Chris Huss
Artist Statement: As with all Apex predators, orcas are essential to maintaining healthy ecosystems. In addition, the southern resident orcas are also culturally, spiritually, and economically important to the Salish Sea. My photograph, “Into the Sunset’ was taken when the resident population was considered to be at its peak, with 98 known members, since the population census was first started in 1973. Despite being declared endangered in 2005 and a recovery plan in place since 2008, their population has declined to 78, nearly an 18% drop.
Thomas D. Mangelsen
Artist Statement: Bears, whether polar bears, coastal brown bears, or grizzly bears, have always been a favorite photographic subject of mine. Upon first moving to Jackson Hole, Wyoming some 40 years ago, grizzly bears were a rare sight in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Thanks to Endangered Species Act protections their population has since rebounded, though their future once again faces difficulties with the looming removal of federal protections. Slow reproductive rates, loss of key food sources due to climate change, and most importantly the potential of sport hunting could reverse their impressive population gains.
David Moskowitz
Artist statement: Long considered an icon of the wild, wolves capture our imagination and spark controversy. The return of wolves to landscapes where humans once extirpated them manifests from our culture’s shifting relationship with the natural world.
David Moskowitz
Artist Statement: One of the most unique populations of caribou in the world depends on the only remaining inland temperate rainforest on Planet Earth found in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and Canada. With only 11 animals left in the United States population, this magnificent creature is on the cusp of disappearing as logging of the ancient forests on which they depend continues in places and climate change threatens to up end this entire ecosystem. With their future in such peril, every time I photograph a mountain caribou, I wonder if future generations of people will get to see these amazing creatures, or if these images will be a requiem for yet another piece of our planet’s vanishing biodiversity.
Dave Showalter
Artist Statement: In spring, Greater Sage-grouse congregate on leks, or mating grounds to perform one of the great courtship displays in the natural world. This iconic bird of the American West thrives in unbroken expanses of sagebrush, and good habitat for Sage-grouse is good for some 350 species of western wildlife. Both Greater and Gunnison Sage-grouse have suffered steady decline due to habitat loss and fragmentation over 150 years, with shifting political priorities and an eye towards further energy expansion on our public lands threatening collaborative conservation agreements, wildlife, public lands, and our western way of life. I firmly believe that current collaborative conservation agreements are our best hope for Greater Sage-grouse survival.
Prev
Next
Show Statement
Our Vanishing Future: Photographs and Illustrations was a travelling, collaborative show featuring the work of nine professional wildlife photographers and the award-winning K-12 youth artists from the 2017 Saving Endangered Species Youth Art Contest. ESC collaborated with photographer David Moskowitz to design the exhibit to raise awareness of iconic North American threatened and endangered species. As a grassroots organization, ESC developed the show to reflect our organizational belief in the power of artwork to educate and inspire people to act in support endangered species conservation.
The exhibit goal was inspiring audiences to learn about and take actions supporting endangered species. The artworks showcase animal and plant species representing the diversity of habitats and ecosystems across the United States. Featured images depict highly visible endangered species, such as the polar bear, and important, endangered keystone species which receive less time in the spotlight, such as whitebark pine. The artworks promote environmental stewardship and social responsibility, providing the opportunity to see inspiring images of species biodiversity from a range of creative perspectives. Through children’s illustrations and professional photographs, the exhibition serves as a creative, positive way to engage public interest in species preservation.
Our Vanishing Future: Photographs and Illustrations travelling show journey:
August, 2017 Gage Academy of Art, Seattle, WA
May, 2018, Capitol Rotunda, Washington, DC (Endangered Species Day exhibit)
June, 2018 Trident Cafe, Boulder, CO
August, 2018 Kendall-Jubb (gallery), Missoula, MT
November, 2018 Art In, Madison, WI
To view images of the 2017 Saving Endangered Species Youth Art Contest winners, please visit:
Bio: Raised on the banks of a coastal community on Vancouver Island, April spends her time exploring the relationship between humans and wilderness via wildlife photography, conservation storytelling, and through writing and poetry. Documenting species like coastal wolves, herring, wild salmon, and grizzly bears, April’s focus is on reconnecting people to the natural world photograph by photograph, word by word.
Bio: Paul Bannick is an award-winning photographer and author, as well as a highly sought-after public speaker. He is most well known for two of his books, “The Owl and The Woodpecker” (Mountaineers 2008) and “Owl: A Year in the Lives of North American Owls” (Braided River 2016). Additionally, his work has been published worldwide by publications from National Geographic to the New York Times and in several dozen other books and magazines.
Bio: Kerri Farley is a completely self-taught nature photographer. She took up photography at the age of 40 and has been photographing butterflies, birds, bugs and all things nature for the past 10 years. Website: www.NewRiverNature.com
Michael Forsberg
Bio: Michael Forsberg is a Nebraska native whose 20-year career as a photographer and conservationist has been dedicated to wildlife and conservation stories in North America’s Great Plains. He is a Senior Fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers, co-founder of the Platte Basin Timelapse Project, and serves as faculty at the University of Nebraska.
Bio: Chris received a BA in photography from the U of W in 1981 and embarked on a career journey that has literally taken him all over the world. Over the years, his work has been published countless times in books, brochures, calendars and magazines including his career highlight, the cover of National Geographic. Experienced in making images across many genres, Chris’ passion is for anything water related. In recent years, Chris has been collaborating with friend and colleague, Mark Strickland, to produce photography exhibits designed to educate the public on the necessity for the conservation and protection of the marine environment. Exhibits to date include, “State of the Sharks”, “From Snails to Whales” and “Ocean Visions”.
Bio: Thomas D. Mangelsen has traveled throughout the natural world for 40 years observing and photographing the earth’s last great wild places. His award-winning limited edition prints have been exhibited in major museums and collected by thousands around the world through his MANGELSEN-Images of Nature Galleries.
Bio: David Moskowitz photography captures intimate and inspiring moments in the lives of people, wildlife, and wild and human-altered landscapes. He is the author and photographer of two books Wildlife of the Pacific Northwest and Wolves in the Land of Salmon. He is currently collaborating with a host of conservation organizations on a multi-media visual storytelling campaign to help conserve mountain caribou and their rainforest home.
Website: davidmoskowitz.net
Dave Showalter
Bio: Colorado-based conservation photographer Dave Showalter is focused on western lands and the enduring wild of the American West. Dave’s multi-year projects have produced two books: Sage Spirit -The American West At A Crossroads by Braided River (2015); and Prairie Thunder – The Nature of Colorado’s Great Plains by Skyline Press (2007). While continuing sagebrush and Sage-grouse advocacy, Dave is launching a new Colorado River watershed project with Braided River in 2017. Dave is a Senior Fellow in the International League of Conservation Photographers.
