Mark Carwardine is a zoologist, an outspoken conservationist, an award-winning writer, a TV and radio presenter, a widely published wildlife photographer, a best-selling author, a wildlife tour operator and leader, a lecturer, and a magazine columnist. In this article Mark explores the important role that photography plays in the fight for conservation hearts and minds. Mark is one of the judges for our new Conservation Documentary Award that seeks a series of 3-6 images with extended captions that together tell a conservation related story. Click here for more information.

In 1968, during the first manned reconnaissance mission to the Moon, astronaut Colonel William Anders held his Hasselblad camera to the Apollo 8 window and took a picture of his home planet. Many attribute the birth of the global environmental movement to that incredible image, called ‘Earthrise’, which showed the beauty and fragility of the Earth for the very first time.

Photography has long played a critical, though seldom recognised, role in conservation. Yosemite National Park was preserved largely due to photography as early as the 1860s and, of course, Ansel Adams’ beautifully crafted images persuaded President Roosevelt to establish King’s Canyon National Park in the late 1930s.

By illustrating the beauty of the natural world, and the ways in which it is being damaged and destroyed, it is possible to touch people’s hearts and change their minds in a way that words simply cannot.

But the shocking truth is that we have lost more than half of all the wild animals on the planet since Anders took his famous picture. Wildlife needs more help now than ever before.

I feel very strongly that we must all do our bit. As photographers, we should all give something back to the world that inspired us to take up photography in the first place.

Mark Carwardine. October 2019.

https://www.markcarwardine.com/