The epic body of work from National Geographic Photographer Joel Sartore’s “Photo Ark” has found its new home in the very building that inspired his mission to create a voluminous archive of global biodiversity: the University of Nebraska State Museum Morrill Hall.
Officially opening today, April 19, Morrill Hall’s “Photo Ark” display is the museums very first digital exhibit. Sartore’s 16,000+ photographs/videos of the world’s birds, fish, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates are displayed primarily on screens stretching around Morrill Hall’s first floor. A dedicated seating area is present to allow visitors to view his work, and see Sartore in action on his mission, sharing behind-the-scenes details such as the challenge of getting animals to stay in one place long enough to photograph them.
“It’s really a phenomenally beautiful and inspiring exhibit,” said Susan Weller, the museum’s director. “To see how he photographs and how the animals sometimes don’t wish to be photographed. There’s also some very somber clips of Joel, which really strikes to your heart about why it is so important for us to take care of this planet, and all the critters that we travel around the sun together with.”
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- Mock photo booth Sartore uses to capture intimate photos of the world’s wildlife. (Chase Porter, KLIN News)
Sartore, was born in Oklahoma, grew up in Ralston, Nebraska, and received a degree in journalism from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he has lived longer than anywhere else. He started the Photo Ark project in Lincoln in 2006 at the Lincoln Children’s Zoo. Since then, the world-renowned photographer and National Geographic Explorer has traveled the world in his quest to create a photo archive that ultimately will feature portraits of more than 25,000 species.
“Joel is definitely our native son,” said Weller. “As a child, he would beg his father to bring him to Morrill Hall so that he could see the animals on display and then spend his allowance in the museum store buying little animals because he wanted to be a zookeeper when he grew up. So I feel a special connection to Joel because Morrill Hall, in a way, helped form his passion.”
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- (Chase Porter, KLIN News)
The Photo Ark installment will be permanent exhibit at Morrill Hall, Weller shared, “It is our intent that Photo Ark will be here for many future generations of Nebraskans.”
Sartore told KLIN News, presenting his homecoming exhibit at Morrill Hall, “is really an honor, to say the least.”
“It feels lovely. I remember when I was in Seymour elementary school in Ralston, we did a field trip down here,” Sartore reflected. “It’s really a grand and fabulous place that’s unlike any other place in Nebraska or on earth. To think that I’d somehow end up with work here is mind blowing to me. It’s very humbling.”
Video displayed in the basement of Morrill Hall of the making of Joel Sartore’s National Geographic Photo Ark. (Chase Porter, KLIN News)
Sartore said the Photo Ark project has one goal: promote wild life conservation.
“We can look animals right in the eye, see that they’re beautiful and intelligent,” he said. “In the end, it’s really going to be up to us going forward as to whether or not we care enough to really save the planet, or whether we just want to stare into our phones and do selfies all day while the world burns… I really just hope that people pay attention and care now. That’s the whole goal with the photo arc. It’s a little bit of a ruse, a bit or trick. It’s designed to get people in the tent of conservation so that they will care about the planet going forward. When you care about all these little creatures, you’re basically caring about yourself, too, because as they go away, so will we.”
The mournful story of declining wildlife populations has been communicated clearly to Sartore through his work.
“As these animals are decreasing, you see fewer and fewer in zoos and aquariums and at rehab centers. Maybe you don’t see them at all anymore. As they diminish, the world becomes less vibrant and less wild,” Sartore said. “But then I meet somebody like one of our conservation heroes downstairs, who are taking in injured and orphaned animals their entire lives and nursing them back to health and releasing them. That boosts me up. You cannot be down or depressed when you see all these people that work so hard to try to save species. That is a real motivator for me.”
Sartore’s Photo Ark exhibit is now on display at Morrill Hall, located at 645 North 14th Street in the heart of UNL’s campus. The museum is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 9:00am — 5:00pm, and Sunday from 12:00pm – 5:00pm.
For more information on Morrill Hall, visit museum.unl.edu. For more information on the National Geographic Photo Ark, visit natgeophotoark.org.
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- A federally endang ered Florida panther, Puma concolor coryi, at Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo. NGS Picture Id:1762957
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- A springbok mantis, Miomantis caffra, at the Auckland Zoo. INS004-00052_hr.JPG
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- A veiled chameleon, Chamaeleo calyptratus, at Rolling Hills Wildlife Adventure confronts a camera lens. 061113_s_RollingHills_zoo_06456.jpg
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- An endangered baby Bornean orangutan, Pongo pygmaeus, named Aurora, with her adoptive mother, Cheyenne, a Bornean/Sumatran cross, Pongo pygmaeus x abelii, at the Houston Zoo, 2013.
Portrait of NG photographer and PhotoARK founder Joel Sartore with frill necked lizard, Chlamydosaurus kingii