The power of "seeing"
A spoon-billed sandpiper (勺嘴鹬) steps into the frame, heading straight for a small bug placed there. It swallows its food with its spoon-shaped beak.
The performance is for Joel Sartore, founder of Photo Ark, a personal effort to document animals around the world.
The critically endangered bird, of which there are fewer than 1, 000 individuals in the wild, is the 13, 000th species Sartore has photographed in 16 years. His goal is 20, 000.
Before he started Photo Ark, Sartore spent more than a decade working as a photographer for National Geographic, mainly covering conservation stories in the field. He had seen wildlife decreasing firsthand, but felt like the public wasn't interested.
Sartore thought of a new way to inspire people. He picked up his camera and set about taking shots of wildlife-but rather than recording animals in the wild he wanted to photograph them outside their natural habitat. He visited zoos, aquariums and rehabilitation (康复) centers and photographed portraits of individual animals against a white or black backdrop (背景幕).
"This allows you to look them in the eye and see that there's great beauty there and that they are worth saving, " he said. "We are primates and we respond to eye contact above all else. "
The response has indeed been huge. Sartore has more than 1.6 million followers on Instagram and a best-selling series of Photo Ark books. Part of the proceeds (收益) from his books goes to fund on-the-ground conservation efforts.
Gary Ward who works at London Zoo where Sartore has shot before said, "Seeing is the first step to caring, and caring is the first step to conservation action. "
By choosing animals outside their natural habitat, Sartore admits he will only show a small part of the world's wildlife. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, there are more than 2 million described species on the planet, and he plans to photograph just 1% of them. But doing so allows him to spotlight species that are already extinct in the wild, and those that would be difficult to take portraits of in their natural habitat. It also enables him to shoot in a controlled environment, meaning the animal can be kept safe and comfortable, with zookeepers or carers on hand to advise on its behavior.
