National Geographic USA 12.2022

12.
2022
OG RA
T
P
P HO
HY
•
•
IS
S U E
PICTURES YEAR of the

EXPLORING THE WORLD IN 118 PHOTOS
From: To:
North Pole, NY Snowflake, AZ
Getting you Holiday Ready

with fast and reliable service
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F RO M T H E E D I TO R DECEMBER 2022 •
THE VISUAL FIELD

SPECIAL ISSUE: PICTURES OF THE YEAR
B Y N AT H A N L U M P
E A R S AG O when I was start- mushroom while walking the dog, or It’s the Appalachian Trail of
Y ing to explore the world in

earnest—making my first
trips to Africa and Asia and
the Arctic—I made the decision
not to take a lot of, or in some cases
watch the cloud formations before a
storm, or admire an artful display of
flowers at my local coffee shop.
I still think that the act of photog-
raphy can be distracting, certainly
H2O: the Northern Forest
Canoe Trail, a 740-mile
route through dozens of
waterways in four states
and Canada. When Amy
Toensing photographed it
for an upcoming National
any, photographs. in a time when we all have powerful Geographic story, she
At the time, I believed that looking at cameras in our pockets and one of the aimed to show “how
beloved these bodies of
the world through a lens hindered my planet’s biggest platforms for engaging water are in the winter,
ability to see what was really in front with others is fueled by a steady flow not just the summer.” On
of me and to notice what mattered. I of images. But I also understand now iced-over Lake Champlain
in Burlington, Vermont,
thought that trying to capture good that taking pictures can be a way to Toensing found (from left)
pictures took me out of the moment stop and linger, to consciously capture Noah Oliff-Lieberman, Tim
and made me conscious of construct- a moment in time and make better Forkey, and Simon Menden-
hall meeting daily in the
ing an image rather than absorbing sense of the world around us.
winter to plunge into the
what I was experiencing. That’s one important outcome of the icy waters, because they
I’ve since changed my mind about work that our phenomenal photogra- believe it promotes good
that. Today I take plenty of photos, phers do for National Geographic. And physical and mental health.
AMY TOENSING
not just on my travels but in the every- it’s why I’m so pleased that we have
day—when I notice an interesting dedicated this month’s magazine to
F RO M T H E E D I TO R DECEMBER 2022 •
immersing you in that work. new way. And taken together, they are
Of course, these professionals have a portrait of our world and the wonder
a much different relationship with of it all in 2022. ON the
photography than I do. Their work is In addition to showing you this COVER
creatively, intellectually, and logisti- stunning array of photos, we’re letting
cally challenging in ways that most of you hear directly from a handful of
us hobbyist photographers can hardly our photographers, who share stories Clad in protective gear,
imagine. For them, it is an art and a that take you deeper into some of their military emergency
science that they’ve perfected—a way most interesting projects. You’ll learn specialist Armando
to stop us in our tracks and make us the extreme lengths to which our con- Salazar makes his way
pay attention to a story that needs to tributors have gone to capture some across sizzling rock as
he helps scientists col-
be told. At their best, photographers of these shots, and get a closer look at
lect samples during
reveal what isn’t readily seen. the gear that makes it all possible. And the fall 2021 volcanic
For this special issue, our talented because photography is at the heart of eruption on La Palma,
team has curated a collection of the what we do every day on Instagram— one of the Spanish
best images from National Geographic where more than 230 million people Canary Islands.
photographers who were in the field like and comment on the images we ARTURO RODRÍGUEZ
over the past year. Some take you back post—we’ve pulled in a selection of
to stories that have already appeared in the photos our followers have loved
our pages (if you missed any of those, best over the past year. If you’re not
head over to nationalgeographic.com
to find them), and some are related to
stories we’ll be publishing in the
already part of our community there,
do check us out @natgeo for a daily
dose of inspiration.
"
For the professionals
months to come. I hope you enjoy the issue. whose images fill this
What they all have in common is the issue, photography is an
power to let you see something, and
understand something, in an entirely
art and a science that
they’ve perfected—a way
to stop us in our tracks
and make us pay
attention to a story that
needs to be told.
Viktor, a 39-year-old male

bonobo, resides in Texas at
the Fort Worth Zoo, where
he’s known for interacting
with visitors. Veteran
photographer Vince Musi
is known for capturing
animals’ personalities in
portraits such as this one.
VINCENT J. MUSI
)FBEJOHGPSUIF
HSFBUFTUHPBM
C O N T R I B U TO R S DECEMBER 2022 •
ARKO DATTO
The Kolkata, India–based
photographer is also a cura-
A-K tor and educator. Page 82
QINISO DLADLA
A photographer and vid-
eographer, Dladla is based
in South Africa. Page 94
MATTHEW ABBOTT
Australian photojournalist JASPER DOEST
Abbott enjoys telling long- Netherlands-based photog-
form visual stories. Page 86 rapher Doest focuses on the
natural world and humans’
KARINE AIGNER connections to it. Page 54
Based in Washington, D.C.,
Aigner uses her camera to RENA EFFENDI
tell stories about the rela- From her base in Istanbul,
tionships between animals Effendi covers human inter-
and humans. Page 124 est stories. Pages 106-107
STEFANIE ARNDT BALAZS GARDI

Arndt is a sea ice physicist Working from San Francisco,
with the Alfred Wegener Los Angeles, and New York
Institute in Bremerhaven, City, Gardi uses photos to
Germany. Page 4 document communities and
people in distress. Page 120
SASHA ARUTYUNOVA
Moscow-born Arutyunova FLORENCE GOUPIL
covers the world and events Peru-based photog-
around her from her base in rapher and National
Brooklyn, New York. Page 92 Geographic Explorer Goupil
focuses on Latin America’s
ANUSH BABAJANYAN environment and Indige-
An Armenian pho- ESTHER HORVATH Seen here on the sea ice of the Weddell
nous communities. Page 70
tographer and National Sea, Horvath covers Earth’s changing polar regions with her pho-
Geographic Explorer, Baba- EVAN GREEN tography. She lives in Germany. Page 37
janyan covers social and Based in Albuquerque, New PHOTO: STEFANIE ARNDT
personal stories in Asia and Mexico, Green is an outdoor

around the world. Page 46 and adventure photogra-
pher. Pages 126-27
CHRIS BURKARD rapher and National Geo-
California native Burkard JEN GUYTON graphic Explorer focuses
photographs stories that National Geographic on technology. Page 62
explore the relationships
between human beings and
Explorer Guyton uses pho-
tography to illuminate L- O HANNAH REYES
MORALES
nature. Page 100 cultures, ecological change,
and wildlife. Page 66 The National Geographic
ALEJANDRO CEGARRA Explorer—based in Manila,
Born in Caracas, Venezuela, ORSOLYA HAARBERG Philippines—looks at human
Cegarra now lives in Hungarian photographer KEITH LADZINSKI ties and resilience in her
Mexico. His passion is Haarberg has a passion for Colorado-based Ladzinski photography. Page 114
covering human rights capturing the scenery and trains his lens on natural
violations. Page 74 moods of Norway and other MUHAMMED MUHEISEN
history, climate change, and The Pulitzer Prize–winning
Nordic lands. Pages 51-53, 56 extreme sports. Page 135
DAVID CHANCELLOR photographer covers refu-
South Africa–based pho- LYNN JOHNSON ERIKA LARSEN gee crises. Page 135
tographer Chancellor This National National Geographic
focuses on conservation Geographic Explorer’s VINCENT J. MUSI
Explorer Larsen is known The longtime National
and how humans and photography probes the for photographing cultures
wildlife interact. Page 88 human condition. Page 110 Geographic contributor is
that live close to nature. well known for his animal
Pages 6, 40, 43, 112, 134
portraiture. Page 2
WAYNE LAWRENCE
KATIE ORLINSKY
Illuminating the World The photographer explores
Orlinsky’s photography for
the human experience from
National Geographic often
Committed to illuminating and protecting the won- bases in Brooklyn, New York,
focuses on climate change.
der of our world, the National Geographic Society and Detroit. Pages 95-97, 99
Pages 90, 108
has funded the work of 22 of this issue’s contributing JUSTYNA MIELNIKIEWICZ
photographers (marked with the border logo). Since The Tbilisi, Georgia, photog- RENAN OZTURK
Photojournalist Ozturk tells
1890, the Society has supported more than 14,000 sci- rapher covers the transfor-
mation of Central European stories of people’s connec-
entists, educators, storytellers, conservationists, and tion to nature in some of
others whose efforts focus on the ocean, land, wild- nations. Pages 60-61
the most challenging envi-
life, human history and culture, and human ingenuity. DAVIDE MONTELEONE ronments on the planet.
Learn about contributors’ work at natgeo.org/impact. The Zurich-based photog- Pages 128, 130
4 • PICTURES OF THE YEAR

C O N T R I B U TO R S DECEMBER 2022 •
GLEB He is based in Innsbruck,

RAYGORODETSKY Austria. Page 104
Born and raised in the
P- S former Soviet Union, Ray-

gorodetsky is a National
NICHOLE SOBECKI
Based in Nairobi,
Kenya, Sobecki is an award-
T-Z
Geographic Explorer who
lives in Canada. He works winning American pho-
with Indigenous commu- tographer and filmmaker
nities on climate change and a National Geographic
MATTHIEU PALEY adaptation and mitigation. Explorer. Page 76 ANASTASIA TAYLOR-LIND
French photographer Page 23 Born in Swindon, England,
Paley has learned to speak GENA STEFFENS
Taylor-Lind travels the
six languages during his ARTURO RODRÍGUEZ A National Geographic
world as a photographic
years of covering cultures At home in the Canary Explorer who is based in
storyteller to cover wars
across the world for National Islands, the Spanish pho- Colombia, Steffens covers
and conflict zones, popula-
Geographic. Pages 58, 116-17 tographer had a front-row socio-environmental issues
tion issues, and women.
seat to the 2021 volcanic through her writing and
Pages 72-73
CHRISTOPHER PAYNE explosion that devastated photography. Page 43
New York City resident La Palma. Page 132 MARK THIESSEN
Payne, who trained as an BRENT STIRTON
A veteran staff photog-
architect, now specializes in ENRIC SALA A frequent contribu-
rapher for National Geo-
architectural and industrial National Geographic tor to National Geographic,
graphic, Thiessen has made
photography. Page 16 Explorer in Residence Sala Stirton travels an average
images of a wide variety of
is the founder and leader of of 10 months each year cov-
subjects, including Russian
THOMAS PESCHAK the Pristine Seas project. He ering wildlife, conservation,
smokejumpers and the Cali-
A marine biologist who was the recipient of the 2021 and cultural issues. Page 118
fornia wildfires. Pages 68, 84
changed course to a career Hubbard Medal for distinc-
in photography, Peschak MAC STONE AMY TOENSING
tion in research, discovery,
is a National Geographic A National Geographic National Geographic
and exploration. Page 18
Explorer with specialties Explorer, Stone grew up in Explorer Toensing is known
in biodiversity and natural AHMAD SAMSUDIN the north-central part of for photographing global
history. Page 122 Samsudin is a freelance Florida, where he devel- cultures and matters affect-
photographer based in oped a passion for photo- ing women. Page 1
CARSTEN PETER Indonesia. Page 80 graphing wetlands. Page 64
Whether climbing a PAOLO VERZONE
glacier or descending into a ROBBIE SHONE AJI STYAWAN Verzone concentrates on
volcano, Peter enjoys pho- A National Geographic Styawan chooses to focus portraits and documen-
tographing some of Earth’s Explorer who specializes in his camera lens on social, tary work. He splits his time
most extreme places. His cave photography, Shone humanitarian, and environ- between Italy, where he
work has been honored works in the most remote mental issues, especially in was born, and Spain.
with the World Press Photo parts of the Earth, spending his home base of Central Pages 34, 102
award. Page 8 days or weeks underground. Java, Indonesia. Page 78
AMI VITALE
A National Geographic
Explorer and photogra-
pher based in Montana,
Vitale covers conservation
and civil unrest around the
world. Page 135
STEPHEN WILKES
National Geographic
Explorer Wilkes is known
for the cityscapes and land-
scapes of his Day to Night
series. He lives in Westport,
Connecticut. Page 48
DAN WINTERS
Contributing scientific and
aerospace photography,
Winters was born in Ven-
tura County, California, and
now lives in New York City.
Pages 12, 38, 135
KILIII YÜYAN
Part Nanai, part
Chinese American, Yüyan
uses his unique cultural
perspective to tell
stories about humans’
JASON GULLEY A dry suit allows Gulley to spend all day in the waters of Homosassa relationship with the
Springs, Florida, photographing manatees. The National Geographic Explorer is natural world, especially
dedicated to covering creatures affected by climate change. Page 44 in the Arctic.
PHOTO: ERIKA LARSEN Pages 24, 26, 136

Pets are domestic
violence survivors, too.
Creating more safe spaces for domestic
violence survivors and their pets so they
can escape and heal together.
Purina.com/EscapeTogether
C A N A RY
I S L A N D S , S PA I N
AN ISLAND
ON FIRE,
RAGING IN
THE DARK
•
PHOTOGRAPH BY
CARSTEN PETER
When cracks opened

up in La Palma’s
Cumbre Vieja ridge
in September 2021,
they set off one of the
most destructive vol-
canic eruptions in the
Canary Islands in 500
years. Carsten Peter
arrived shortly after
to cover the event,
the 10th volcano he’s
photographed for the
magazine. Over the
next three months,
molten rock splattered
from the volcano’s
vents, while lava foun-
tains blasted nearly
2,000 feet high. The
eruption sent millions
of cubic yards of lava
on the march, bulldoz-
ing more than 2,800
buildings, 864 acres of
farmland, and over 43
miles of road. Years of
recovery now lie ahead
for La Palma’s roughly
86,000 inhabitants.
NATIONA L GEOGRAPHIC VOL. 242 NO. 6 • PAGE 11
S P E C I A L I S S U E
PICTURES OF
THE YEAR •
We sent our photographers around the globe
to document our world and our times.
In this special edition, we showcase their
best photos and compelling stories.
F E AT U R I N G B E H I N D -T H E - S C E N E S O N F I V E A S S I G N M E N T S
23 40 78 94 110
KILIII ERIKA AJI WAY N E LY N N
Y Ü YA N LARSEN S T YAWA N L AW R E N C E JOHNSON
in Greenland in the U.S. in Indonesia in South Africa in the U.S.
K E N N E DY With its Artemis I mis- slated to last more flesh-and-blood pas-
sion, NASA is kicking than a month, Campos sengers will use during
S PAC E C E N T E R ,
off an ambitious plan is sitting in for crew launch, reentry, and
F LO R I DA to return humans to in the Orion capsule. other critical moments.
the moon. When the Sensors in Campos’s NASA hopes a crew of
rocket launches, this headrest and behind four will make the next
uncrewed trip’s com- its seat track vibra- trek aboard Orion as
LUNAR
mander will be the tion and acceleration, early as May 2024,
“moonikin” Campos, expected to reach four as part of Artemis II.
DREAMS
named after a NASA times that of Earth’s
engineer who helped gravity. Campos wears •
save the lives of the radiation sensors
Apollo 13 crew. During and the survival suit PHOTOGRAPH BY
a trip around the moon that future missions’ DA N W I N T E R S
PICTURES OF THE YEAR • 13

AT L A S
132
Photographers e I.
A R C T I C
lesmer
sent out El Siorapaluk
Beaufort Qaanaaq
Lancaster Sound
60
Sea
Ba
GREENLAND
Ba Greenland
ffin
Sea
ffi
Disko Bay
n I.
ARCTIC CIRCLE
Ba y
Kobuk River Valley
ALASKA
Countries (U.S.) Meradalir ICELAND NORWAY
visited
CAN
Hudson Valley
C A N A D A
Bay UNITED DEN.
ROC
Gulf of Labrador
AD
KINGDOM
NETH.
Alaska Sea
IA
KY
NORTH Den Helder
N
S
H
IE Lake Island of GER.
LD Champlain Newfoundland FRANCE
A MER I CA Zürich
M T S.
Mattawa
Corning MONACO
UNITED
Bears S TAT E S PORTUGAL SWITZ.
Humboldt County Liberty
Ears N.M. U. of SPAIN
Fort Washington, D.C.
Monument Valley Worth Virginia Pulpí
Portal Zoo
Dallas Ichetucknee
Madeira MOROCCO
Springs State Park
Crystal La Palma
Kennedy Space Center Canary Is.
River
Blue Cypress Lake
TROPIC OF CANCER MEXICO WESTERN SAHARA S A H
(MOR.)
A T L A N T I C
HAWAII
(U.S.) HONDURAS PUERTO RICO (U.S.)
Caribbean
A F
GUATEMALA Sea Caracas S A
P A C I F I C EL SALVADOR
NIGERIA
VENEZUELA FRENCH
GUIANA
s
COLOMBIA (FRANCE)
no
Lla
Cauca O C E A N
EQUATOR Galápagos Is. Lopé National Park
ECUADOR GABON
A M A Z O N
O C E A N
A
B A S I N
PERU B R A Z I L
Line Islands
N
Nevado Auzangate S OU TH
D
Emas National Park
ON ASSIGNMENT
AME R IC A
E
WHERE IN
S
C H I L E
Patagonia
THE WORLD
National Geographic photographers crisscrossed the
globe this past year to capture glimpses of our shared
human journey and the incredible planet we call home. e
as sag
e P
Populated place Drak S O U T
Locations of photos Washington, D.C.
found in this issue Lake Champlain Water feature ANTARCTIC CIRCLE
of National Geographic
Camp Adventure Point of interest
Endurance Wreck We d d e l l
Where National Mt. Everest Physical feature
Sea
Geographic has Lopé National Park Protected area
sent photographers
in the past year
Photographers sent to A N T A R
highlighted countries
BY S O R E N WA L L JA S P E R •
O C E A N
120°F
Heat recorded by Matthieu
Paley as he followed Sufi
Kara Laptev
Sea Sea pilgrims in Pakistan’s Sindh
East Siberian
Barents Sea and Balochistan Provinces
Sea
S I B E R I A
Ur
SWEDEN
al
R U S S I A Bering
M t s.
Camp Adventure Sea of

Kamchatka Sea
Okhotsk Peninsula
EUROPE
POL.
Przemyśl A Aleutian Is.
A S I A
d
lan
lt
Lladoc ay
Low
AUST. GEORGIA Mt
KOSOVO Vakhsh s.
Turan
Pristina River
IT.
TÜRKIYE
ARMENIA GOBI SOUTH
KOREA
Gyumri TAJIKISTAN Hunza
Valley JAPAN
LEB. Wardak Province Plateau of Tibet C H I N A
HI
ISRAEL AFGHANISTAN M
N
AL Mt. Everest
TA
Tel Aviv-Yafo A Y 29,032 ft Dujiangyan East

A 8,849 m
IS
K Panda Base China P A C I F I C

EGYPT JORDAN QATAR PA
Naing Valley Sea
Luxor NEPAL
Arabian TROPIC OF CANCER
A R A U.A.E.
Peninsula TAIWAN
INDIA
Mumbai
Sea
R I C A Pe In Philippine
do insu
Sea
in a
n
ch la
Bay of Manila
ina
H E L
Ch
Ethiopian Arabian Beng al PHILIPPINES O C E A N

th
Highlands Sea Minneriya

ou
UGANDA S
CONGO SRI
LANKA M A L AY S I A
BASIN KENYA
Borneo EQUATOR
DEM. REP. Sumatra
OF THE Amboseli National Park I N D O N E S I A
CONGO New
Masai Mara Guinea
National Reserve Timbulsloko
Java
I N D I A N Warddeken Indigenous
Protected Area
Coral Sea
MADAGASCAR
O C E A N TROPIC OF CAPRICORN
Kalahari
Desert AUSTRALIA
SOUTH Durban
AFRICA
WINKEL II PROJECTION Tas man
S ea North I.
SCALE AT THE EQUATOR 1:123,900,000
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 Tasmania South I.

NEW
STATUTE MILES ZEALAND
0 1000 2000 3000 4000

KILOMETERS
H E R N O C E A N
-49°F
Cold measured by Pat Kane
in Canada’s Northwest
C T I C A
Territories while covering
Indigenous trappers

CORNING, It’s tempting to think thinner than a sheet photographer cap-
of ceramics as strong of paper. The loops tured the innovation
N E W YO R K
yet brittle, like a coffee of heat-tolerant alu- as part of a 10-year
cup shattered on a mina seen here could project focused on the
kitchen floor. But to make automotive influence of U.S.-based
scientists at glass and sensors and other manufacturers.
ceramics manufac- devices used in harsh
CERAMICS turer Corning, they’re environments quicker
flexible and durable. and cheaper to pro- •
THAT BEND The ribbon ceramics
they’ve devised can
duce. They could also
enable new kinds
THE MIND be spooled into strips of batteries. The
PHOTOGRAPH BY
C H R I S TO P H E R PAY N E
W HAT WILL YO U R
LEGACY B E?
The National Geographic Society is
an impact-driven global nonprofit
that invests in bold people and
transformative ideas.
We believe that meaningful, lasting

change for the better is possible —
when we work together.
We invite you to include us in your

estate plans and help us sustain our
momentum by preparing the next
generations to do even more to care
for the planet.
P H OTO G R A P H BY C H A R L I E H A M I LTO N JA M E S
C R E AT E A L E GAC Y O F YO U R OW N
LINE ISLANDS,
K I R I BAT I
RESILIENCE
IN THE
DEEP
•
PHOTOGRAPH BY
ENRIC SALA
Around Vostok and

other southern Line
Islands in the remote
central Pacific, abun-
dant small reef fish
support a thriving
population of top
predators. Here a gray
reef shark swims over
Montipora corals in
a sea of fusilier dam-
selfish and Bartlett’s
anthias. Enric Sala, a
National Geographic
Explorer in Residence,
visited the area in
2009 for his Pristine
Seas project, which
conducted the first
scientific surveys
of marine life around
the islands and recom-
mended protection.
Now the sea around
the islands is a reserve,
which may have helped
it recover from a dra-
matic coral die-off in
the wake of a 2015-16
El Niño warming event.
On this more recent
trip, Sala captured the
reefs restored to their
former glory.
BY T H E N U M B E R S I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y JULIA DUFOSSÉ •
2 9,0 3 2
Elevation, in feet,
attained by
Evan Green as part
9
Remote cameras
of the first all-Black
Dan Winters had
team to summit
pointed at Artemis I
Everest
on September 27—
until its launch was
halted as Hurricane
Ian formed
4
Types of transport,
including a
powered paraglider,
2,238,899 Ben Depp used
Images filed to document
by all photographers 44 Louisiana’s coast
Photographers
who completed
their first National
Geographic
assignment
4 ,0 0 0
Pounds of gear
staff photo
engineer Tom
O’Brien shipped
into the field 1
Tripod taken by
9, 8 69 a hyena when
Depth, in feet, of Jen Guyton was
the Endurance photographing the
shipwreck, whose animals in Kenya
discovery was
documented by
Esther Horvath
the physical demands of fieldwork,

T H E I N T E N S E T R I P P R E PA R AT I O N ,
the real-time education in every assignment … and the feeling of
A YEAR IN genuinely connecting with a subject. When photographers are in the
PHOTOGRAPHY— field for National Geographic, many aspects of the job are hard to
quantify. But with our photographers’ help, we collected the statistics
ADDED UP above. They show how efforts amounted to the images we published
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• T H R O U G H the L E N S 23 •
K I L I I I Y Ü YA N
S U RV I VA L S K I L L S A N D E M PAT H Y H E L P T H I S P H OTO G R A P H E R
T H R I V E I N E X T R E M E E N V I RO N M E N T S A N D D I V E R S E C U LT U R E S .
I AM GLIDING ON ICE, inhaling to where ice meets water. After

the crisp April air of Greenland’s five weeks, when we finally come
high Arctic, accompanied by up on a small area of open water,
the rhythmic whooshing of sled Quma tests the ice with a heavy
dogs. I kneel on the back of a sled, pole. It’s mushy, but underneath
making photographs of Inughuit the softness lies dependable
hunter Qumangaapik “Quma” ice—our lives depend on that ice
Qvist and his dog team. (That’s holding together.
me holding the camera, above.) I decide I’ll go first into the
I’m on the quintessential frigid water with one of the
National Geographic assignment, kayaks we’ve lashed to the sleds.
dogsledding across roughly 30 Quma and another hunter,
miles of sea ice in search of the Ilannguaq Qaerngaq, give each
unicorn of the sea: the narwhal. other an uneasy glance, but they
Week after week, we’ve been launch me anyway and watch ner-
coming out on the sea ice of vously as I fumble around with
Inglefield Fjord, seeking a path my camera for a few moments.
GLEB RAYGORODETSKY
• 24
T H R O U G H the L E N S •
Cousins Berthe Simigaq and reflect the impor-

and Nellie Simigaq tant relationship that
push strollers across the Inughuit, or northern
sea ice on their way to Greenlandic Inuit, have
annual dogsled races in with dog teams—the
Qaanaaq, Greenland. main means of trans-
The races are the big- portation here during
gest events in town much of the year.
• 26
Inughuit elder Pullaq little auks numbering

Ulloriaq catches a in the millions migrate
little auk in a tradi- to nesting grounds
tional net on the cliffs in north Greenland,
above Siorapaluk, the where they have con-
most northern Inuit tributed to a sustain-
community in Green- able Inughuit harvest
land. In late summer, for centuries.
AS
28
IA
• North
Pole
Qaanaaq EUR.
Nuuk
N.
M Greenland
A
ER (DEN.)
.
ATLANTIC
O CEAN
Then my kayak takes off like a O U T S TA N D I N G This is where my hope lives.

shot. It rockets over the glassy S TO RY T E L L I N G Native communities are incredi-
water, coming to a stop only after AWARD WINNER bly good at stewarding their lands,
I execute an expert turn with my The prestigious annual and it’s not because they are any
Eliza Scidmore Award
paddle. Across the water, I can see more enlightened than anyone
is presented by the National
the hunters’ mouths turn upward. Geographic Society. else. Indigenous peoples recog-
For years prior to becoming a pho- The award is named for nize human tendencies toward
tographer, I built and paddled tra- the writer and photographer selfishness and greed. They have
ditional kayaks. They knew that, who, in 1892, became the evolved all kinds of social struc-
first woman elected to the
but now they’re seeing proof. Society’s board. This year’s tures, which one might even
The Inughuit launch their own award recognizes Kiliii call technologies, to combat our
kayaks, and we start searching for Yüyan for his photographic destructive impulses.
narwhals, spending the afternoon storytelling that illuminates Indigenous peoples are not
communities connected
looking for signs of them around to the land. somehow magical—but they are
the water’s edge. But it’s a lost exceptionally diverse. All those
cause. The thin, rotting ice still thousands of cultures represent
extends way out of the fjord into individual experiments in how
the sea, preventing the narwhals humans manage themselves and
from surfacing for a breath. They into an emergency survival sit- their surroundings, and when try-
can’t get into this area to fish for uation (commonplace here), it’s ing to solve thorny problems, pos-
halibut or to give birth. good to remember: You can’t eat sibilities are needed. Indigenous
By mid-June, I can’t stay any a snowmobile. cultures also have had millennia
longer. The thin ice remains in As a photographer of Nanai to refine their solutions to prob-
place, and the narwhals stay locked (East Asian Indigenous) and lems, providing not only a variety
out of their calving grounds, two Chinese descent, raised by my of models but mostly good models.
months later than usual. As my immigrant parents in the United It’s hard to survive if you degrade
plane gains altitude over the sea States, I know how difficult it is the land that gives you life.
ice for the long return south, I look to understand the perspectives In past centuries, Indigenous
down and see dog teams mushing of different cultures. But I believe peoples have stewarded their
around the village, a seemingly it’s essential. My mission is to try lands independently. Today the
timeless sight in this climate of to understand how the thousands threats their territories face are
unyielding change. of wildly varied Native cultures orders of magnitude greater.
North Greenland, home to the around the world manage to be Mining, oil extraction, and devel-
Indigenous Inughuit, is one of so good at land stewardship, while opment are rapidly eating away
the few places on Earth where this modern globalized culture pristine homelands from the
the most reliable form of trans- has basically dropped the ball. Amazon to the Arctic. It’s my hope
portation during much of the year The stakes for the environment that powerful stories can help the
is a dogsled. It might seem odd to we live in are high, and we all industrialized world learn from
most people. After all, dogsled- know it. The issues, from climate Indigenous models, as well as sup-
ding takes time, which means long change to habitat destruction, port Native communities working
exposure to bitter cold. Dogs need seem dire. Yet my friends know toward solutions.
to be fed and cared for. Mushers me as an optimist. That’s because Though I’m often engaged
also need to be trained and in I see the solutions are already out with heady thoughts like these, I
good fitness. there, and are in practice at this remember that spring afternoon
Nevertheless, the community very moment. as we mushed across the ice and
of Qaanaaq has remained, quite Eighty percent of the world’s my mind was at peace. Our Green-
deliberately, a place where dog- existing land biodiversity is on landic team paused to hunt a seal,
sledding is a common way to get territories managed by Indige- feed the dogs with the blubber, and
around. Sleds are slow, quiet, nous peoples, who make up just stew the ribs for dinner. On that
and demand constant observa- 5 percent of the global population. day, we covered 30 miles on seal
tion of the sea ice and its wildlife. Nearly all of that territory encom- fuel. That, my friends, is a recipe
Unlike snowmobiles, they don’t passes people making a living not only for a great assignment
break down. And when you get with wildlife. but also for good living. •
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3 QUESTIONS
WO R K I N G
R E M O T E LY
O U R E D I TO R S Q U I Z Z E D P H OTO G RA P H E R S A B O U T T H E I R E X P E R I E N C E S
I N T H E F I E L D. H E R E , S OM E O F T H E I R A N SW E R S .
An FDA-approved device for
What’s the motion sickness that looks like a

watch but shocks like an electric
eel ... which is very handy when
one item you flying in bush planes or rocking
"
around ocean swells on a boat.
always take —KILIII YÜYAN
on, or bring I like to get a shave from a local

barber wherever I go.
I always try to find a stray
feather and bring it
back from, an —DAVIDE MONTELEONE home for my son ... It’s a fun
way to share my experience ...
assignment? My father’s college ring.
—SARA HYLTON
and show him a little piece
of the world.
"was born in
My son, Oliver,
A small paper heart, which a
little girl gave me while I was on
an assignment in Mongolia.
—KEITH LADZINSKI
I always bring hot sauce ...

May of 2021. Since then —ANUSH BABAJANYAN This makes every camping meal
I’ve kept one of the socks ... he go from two stars to four stars.
"
wore as a newborn. I have —MAC STONE
taken it everywhere with me.
Travel yoga mat. Best way to
—SAUL MARTINEZ
I always bring tobacco to offer

start or finish a day in the Describe
the land as a spiritual gesture
of respect for nature and to ask
field is with some meditation
and stretching. a memorable
for safety when traveling.
—PAT KANE
—RUBÉN SALGADO E SCUDERO
first while on
There is a bobcat fetish that
assignment.
lives in my camera bag ... It was my first chance to
[It] comes all over the world see moon bears in their natural
with me. habitat, with Korea National
—KARINE AIGNER Park rangers. I spotted lumps
I L L U S T R AT I O N S B Y LUCI GUTIÉRREZ •
"
of black moving in the bushes I was photographing the oldest
maybe 650 feet away and lifted cypress tree in the world when
my camera, when a ranger all of a sudden a comet-like light
grabbed me and said, “We gotta
Halfway through an streaked across the only open
go!” I later learned the mother assignment in the Sierra Sur of part of the sky in my frame.
bear had sensed us, instructed Oaxaca, I decided to include It was completely unexpected,
the cubs to move, and could my feet in this sensory and I had only one shot to make
have attacked us. journey and walk barefoot. it work. It turned out to be
—JUN MICHAEL PARK —MARICEU ERTHAL GARCÍA a SpaceX rocket [see page 64].
—MAC STONE
I was documenting the
nighttime landscape of New Photographing a rock climb
Hampshire’s White Mountains 60 feet off the ground in Liming,
when high-energy particles China, I held my camera by my
from a solar eruption arrived in fingertips, ready to drop it to
the Earth’s magnetic field, my side as it’s always tethered to
and bright vertical rays of my body harness—but then I saw
the northern lights appeared. its tether dangling unattached.
"
—BABAK TAFRE SHI Thankfully, in my panic I gripped
harder instead of dropping it.
Naked caving! Inside Pulpí Geode —IRENE YEE
[one of Earth’s largest crystal
caves] in Spain, it was extremely
hot, so we had very little time
Tell us about a I was diving with a leopard
seal in Antarctica when a current
allowed for making photographs.

To maximize the time,
memorable save beached us both on a piece
of sea ice. For about 30 seconds,
my camera housing was the
I stripped (100 percent) and only in the field. only thing between us, and the
attacking seal bit it repeatedly.
wore the white paper suit. It Rushing out to a human- Once the seal wriggled back
worked; I bought myself 10 extra wildlife conflict site in Gabon, into the water, my Zodiac driver
minutes [see page 104]. I forgot to bring water. After swooped in and pulled me off
—ROBBIE SHONE 10 hours in the blazing sun, I was the ice into the boat.
getting seriously dehydrated —KEITH LADZINSKI
A 600-pound pig on a farm [when] a train approached.
"
in Virginia. She looked at me, A man hanging out the window
crawled out of her mud pit, dropped a water bottle while
and jogged over to rub shouting, “Water for the National
her muddy nose on my lens. Well, I was almost run over
Geographic photographer!”
(i.e., killed) by a zebra while on a
—KENDRICK BRINSON as the train continued.
story in Zambia. So I have taken
—JASPER DOE ST
the zebra as my talisman animal
Seeing a completely dead
:) After all, I was photographing
mangrove [forest, from climate Out by myself in Alaska, I stepped
that project in black and white.
change effects] was one of the to a cliff edge to get a photo,
So many stories ... I can’t choose.
most remarkable experiences. and the spot I was standing on
—LYNN JOHNSON
The dry trees are reminiscent of evaporated. I managed to grab
horror movie scenes. a clump of grass with one hand,
—VICTOR MORIYAMA which kept me from falling 200
feet. I shot a couple quick frames
Shooting inside the tomb of Tut- with the other hand—I figured,
ankhamun was a mysterious and What the hell?—then pulled on
magical experience [see page 34]. the grass to crawl slowly back up.
—PAOLO VERZONE —JOEL SARTORE
LUXO R ,
E GY P T
KING TUT’S
ETERNAL
MYSTIQUE
•
PHOTOGRAPH BY
PAO L O V E R ZO N E
With winged arms in

a protective spread,
this relief of the
Egyptian goddess Isis
has stood guard for
millennia on the stone
sarcophagus of the
pharaoh Tutankhamun.
Isis has witnessed a
great deal: Soon after
Tut’s burial in Egypt’s
Valley of the Kings in
the 14th century B.C.,
grave robbers ran-
sacked parts of the
tomb. Then, in 1922,
a team led by British
archaeologist Howard
Carter rediscovered
the burial site and fully
excavated it. Nearly
all of Tutankhamun’s
belongings now reside
in the lavish Grand
Egyptian Museum,
which opens soon
outside Cairo. The sar-
cophagus, though,
remains within the
necropolis, along with
the boy king’s mummy.
WEDDELL SEA
Explorer Ernest Henry nearly 10,000 feet

ENDURING Shackleton and his
crew in 1915 all survived
down in March 2022.
The Endurance22
MYSTERY SOLVED when ice crushed their
ship, Endurance, off
expedition, using
autonomous under-
the coast of Antarctica. water vehicles, located
The three-masted, the ship and spotted
oak-hulled barkentine, the brass lettering
long lost in the depths on its stern, well-
of the Weddell Sea, was preserved by cold
discovered in astonish- temperatures, lack of
ingly good condition light, and low oxygen.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY F A L K L A N D S M A R I T I M E H E R I TA G E T R U S T A N D
N A T I O N A L G E O G R A P H I C ( L E F T ) , E S T H E R H O RVAT H ( R I G H T ) •
"
Esther Horvath pho-
tographed Agulhas II
plowing through thick
Antarctic ice floes. The Searching and moving in the polar darkness has a certain
treacherous weather mystery I’m drawn to. It’s an echo of the underwater world.
made securing camera
equipment on board — E S T H E R H O RVAT H
a challenge. “It was so
windy out there, I had
to use my entire body
weight to hold down
my tripod,” she says.

K E N N E DY
S PAC E C E N T E R ,
F LO R I DA
THE NEXT
RIDE TO
THE MOON
•
PHOTOGRAPH BY
DA N W I N T E R S
Shrouded in morn-
ing mist, NASA’s Space
Launch System (SLS)
looms over Kennedy
Space Center’s Launch
Complex 39B in March
as the rocket awaits
testing. The 322-foot-
tall vehicle is the
linchpin of NASA’s
Artemis program,
which aims to land the
first woman and the
first person of color
on the moon and use
it as a stepping stone
to Mars. With two
boosters and four main
engines, SLS can fling
a crew capsule moon-
ward with 8.8 million
pounds of thrust—15
percent more oomph
than the Apollo pro-
gram’s Saturn V rocket.
Each SLS will be used
only once. After this
rocket’s launch during
an uncrewed test flight
planned for this year,
its pieces are expected
to either fall into the
ocean or enter orbit
around the sun.
• 40
ERIKA
LA R S E N
HER WORK EXPLORES
THE BONDS CONNECTING
C U LT U R E S , P E O P L E ,
A N D N AT U R E — I N T H I S
CASE, GENTLE MARINE
SURVIVORS.
water’s edge, on the

W E ’ D S I T AT T H E
seawall in front of Gena’s family home,
and listen. Soon we’d hear them: gusts
of breath when the manatees came up
for air before sinking back below the

Manatees, among
other sea life, adorn
a convenience store’s
mural in Crystal River,
a coastal city in west-
ern Florida known as
the Manatee Capital
of the World. A refuge
for the sea mammals
operates there.

• 42
surface of the spring-fed Florida about, manatees. Crowds of fans
"
bay. I began calling them “the describe them fondly as gentle,
sounds of the ancients,” as these huggable, lovable, sweet. Marine
docile marine mammals’ lineage conservationists dedicated to the
leads back to grass-eating land Gena and I would manatee’s welfare warn that it’s a
mammals from about 50 million immerse ourselves “canary in a coal mine”—an ani-
years ago. Yet in the places that in the culture of what’s mal that’s in great danger itself
manatees inhabit today, many pop- become an almost and is also a bellwether of the
ulations are seriously threatened. mythical being—on danger in its surroundings.
Thanks in part to manatees’
R I T E R - photographer
one hand threatened, popularity, today Florida’s effort
W Gena Steffens and

I were paired at a
National Geographic
mentorship program in 2019 and
had discussed working on a proj-
on the other,
larger than life.
—ERIKA LARSEN
to conserve them has broad sup-
port: from zoos, aquariums, muse-
ums, the U.S. Geological Survey,
power companies, universities,
and more.
ect together. I had moved to South The feature story on which we
Florida only a few years before, collaborated is to appear in the
and Gena was living in Colombia. January 2023 issue of National
Gena had spent many child- One headline that drew me in: Geographic. The visual storytell-
hood days in Crystal River, “Nobody Knows How to Wean ing will include Jason’s laborious
Florida—known as the Mana- Manatees Off Coal Plants,” on a underwater imagery as well as my
tee Capital of the World—at the Bloomberg Businessweek report photography from land, which
home that was originally her about manatees flocking to the ranged from documentary to more
great-grandmother’s, on land hot-water runoff from coal- and whimsical, vacation-style images
facing the waters of a manatee oil-fired power plants, as natural that may jog our collective mem-
refuge. During the pandemic, hot springs habitats grew scarce ory of Florida leisure (facing page).
she decided to stay at that house because of coastal development.
for a few weeks, and on a visit, we As we did research—on rel- T THE END OF the jour-
began discussing ideas.
In 2021, declining water quality
wiped out many of the Atlantic
Florida seagrasses that manatees
eat, and more than a thousand
evant science, environment,
history—we came across the
work of scientist and National
Geographic Explorer Jason Gul-
ley, who had been investigating
A ney, Gena and I found
ourselves again sitting on
the seawall, considering
the manatees’ story and where it
might lead us.
perished in what was a particu- issues surrounding manatees. For me, manatees have become
larly deadly year for the mam- After discussions with photo edi- a guide showing me a new, pri-
mals. The same year, National tor Kaya Berne, Jason was added mordial layer of this place where I
Geographic approved our proposal to the team. He would take under- live. Throughout our work on their
to do a story on manatees, their water and aerial photographs, to story, they acted as mirrors—to
essential relationship to the frag- reveal manatees’ otherworldly those who cross their path, to the
ile Florida ecosystem, and where habitat (see page 44). places where they live, and to our
they’re at risk or thriving. Meanwhile, back on land, Gena relationship with the environment
We made Crystal River our and I would immerse ourselves in that sustains us all.
research base. Early in the morn- the culture of what’s become an Below the surface, they’re a
ing when I’d walk out, I’d be met almost mythical being—on one small and unusual group of her-
by bursts of air from the sur- hand threatened, on the other, bivorous mammals playing an
rounding water. The sounds of larger than life. essential role in our ecosystem;
the ancients again. above the surface, charismatic
Gena’s roots in Crystal River IGZAGGING ACROSS Florida icons with the ability to delight,
revealed a lifelong fascination
with manatees, and I quickly
gained inspiration by spend-
ing time in their environment.
Z and ranging up and down
its coastlines, we found a
complex web of human
encounters with, and feelings
to enchant, and to reflect the best
part of humanity.
They are the ancients, holding
memories from long ago. •

Gentle. Lovable.
Huggable, even.
Manatees get raves
from fans, many of
whom have never
seen a real one. Such
is the sea cow’s hold
on the popular imag-
ination, displayed
in murals, statues,
clothing logos, and
more. Some signs of
manatee mania that
writer Gena Steffens
and I encountered
in Florida, clockwise
from top: a mana-
tee cutout (that’s me
hugging it) at the
Bishop Museum of
Science and Nature
in Bradenton; a
mother-and-baby
manatee mailbox in
Crystal River; and
fans Topaz Mar-
tofel and son Ryder
Kramer, who came
from Pennsylvania
to attend the Flor-
ida Manatee Festival
in Crystal River and
swim with the docile
mammals. —EL
GENA STEFFENS (TOP) PICTURES OF THE YEAR • 43

ICHETUCKNEE A manatee munches starvation. During the
on a wisp of eelgrass winter of 2021-22, state
SPRINGS
in Florida’s Ichetuck- and federal wildlife offi-
S TAT E PA R K , nee River, whose clean, cials carried out a pilot
F LO R I DA warm waters can be supplemental feeding
a winter refuge for program in Indian River
the aquatic mammals. Lagoon to save as many
Manatees can’t toler- manatees as possible
MANATEES
ate water colder than before they could leave
68 degrees Fahrenheit. for warmer foraging
IN DANGER
Declining water quality grounds in spring.
due to pollution, sed- By mid-September
imentation, and algal of this year, 694 mana-
blooms along central tees had died.
Florida’s Atlantic coast
has decimated seagrass,
one of the manatee’s •
main foods. As a result,
a record 1,101 manatees PHOTOGRAPH BY
died last year, most from JA S O N G U L L E Y
VA K H S H R I V E R , Ranobi Islomova, 63, instances of drought—
of Farkhor, Tajikistan, is making hydropower
TA J I K I S TA N
lies in the back of a car in Central Asia an
while waiting to return increasingly unreli-
home from gallblad- able energy source.
der surgery. In the Tajikistan is on track to
ON THE background is the res-

ervoir formed by the
complete the world’s
largest dam, the 1,099-
ROAD TO 984-foot-high Nurek

Dam, the second high-
foot Rogun, in the next
decade at the esti-
MORE est dam on the planet,

whose hydropower
mated cost of eight
billion dollars.
ENERGY plant on the Vakhsh

River supplies about
50 percent of the •
country’s electricity.
Climate change—in the PHOTOGRAPH BY
form of rapidly melting ANUSH
glaciers and growing B A B A JA N YA N
BEARS EARS
N AT I O N A L
M O N U M E N T,
U TA H
A FULL SKY
SHOW OVER
36 HOURS
•
PHOTOGRAPH BY
STEPHEN WILKES
To create this image

of Bears Ears, Stephen
Wilkes took 2,092
photos over 36 hours,
combining 44 of them
to show a sunrise, a full
moon, and a rare align-
ment of four planets.
“Beyond the sense of
awe and beauty,” he
says, “there’s a palpa-
ble sense of history
with every step you
take.” This spectacular
landscape in southeast-
ern Utah exemplifies
the risk to some of the
country’s unique, irre-
placeable places. One
president preserved it
at the urging of Native
Americans who hold
it sacred; another tried
to open it to drill-
ing and mining. The
national monument
is rich in archaeologi-
cal sites, including the
Citadel, an ancient cliff
dwelling now popular
with hikers.
C O N TAC T S H E E T
MM9697_211115_2332.jpg MM9697_211115_2336.jpg MM9697_211115_2337.jpg MM9697_211115_2339.jpg MM9697_211115_2

M A D E I R A , P O RT U GA L
MAKING
THE CUT
•
2342.jpg MM9697_211115_2350.jpg MM9697_211115_2354.jpg MM9697_211115_2355.jpg
PHOTOGRAPHS BY
O R S O LYA H A A R B E R G
Draped in moss and fringed with ferns,

the laurel forests of Madeira are echoes
of the ecosystems that held sway across
southern Europe millions of years ago.
Norway-based photographer Orsolya Haar-
2369.jpg MM9697_211115_2375.jpg MM9697_211115_2385.jpg MM9697_211115_2386.jpg berg recalls that when she hiked among
these trees, some perhaps 800 years old,
she felt as if she were “entering a holy
space.” Haarberg’s images, which ran in our
May 2022 issue, bring attention to the
beauty of Europe’s old-growth forests.
About 2 percent of the European Union’s
forested area is undisturbed by human
activity, preserving a rich tapestry of nature.
Haarberg took 522 images in the field in
Madeira. Photo Editor Kurt Mutchler had
the tough job of choosing among them.
Orange (FINAL SELECTS) marks photos that
reached the last round, blue (PUBLISHED)
those appearing in the magazine.

A UNESCO World
Heritage site, Madei-
ra’s laurel forests spring
from a mountainous
Portuguese archi-
pelago in the North
Atlantic west of Africa.
At elevations of 1,000
to 5,000 feet, ribbons
of mist wrap the trees,
creating cloud forests
that support many
endemic species.

LO P É An elephant gathers last strongholds in have fallen by more
N AT I O N A L PA R K , the fruit of a Detarium Central Africa. Forest than 86 percent over
macrocarpum tree elephants are impor- 31 years. Depletion
GA B O N off the forest floor in tant seed dispersers of these elephant
Gabon’s Lopé National in such ecosystems, populations in turn
Park. Research suggests as they range widely has the potential to
that a decades-long and their dung contains further contribute
BIG EATER,
decline in Lopé’s tree nutrients that help to the trees’ decline.
fruits, most likely driven seeds germinate suc-
SMALL
by rising tempera- cessfully. African forest
tures and plummeting elephants are now crit- •
MENU
rainfall, may be caus- ically endangered by
ing forest elephants to poaching and habitat PHOTOGRAPH BY
starve in one of their loss, and their numbers JA S P E R D O E S T
CAMP
A DV E N T U R E ,
DENMARK
TREE
THERAPY
•
PHOTOGRAPH BY
O R S O LYA H A A R B E R G
Visitors ascend the

spiraling 150-foot-
high boardwalk in
the yellowing autumn
at Denmark’s Camp
Adventure to gain a
new perspective on
the forest southwest
of Copenhagen—
and, perhaps, on life
itself. “Forest bathing,”
among the woods’
most powerful and
least tangible bene-
fits, has been shown
to reduce stress,
improving mental and
physical well-being.
HUNZA,
PA K I S TA N
GLACIER
MATING
RITUAL
•
PHOTOGRAPH BY
M AT T H I E U PA L E Y
Ali Haider, 19, Najib

Khan, 20, and Atif Amin,
24, pose in pumpkin
masks trimmed
with goat hair during
the reenactment of
a glacier-mating cere-
mony on the Shispare
Glacier in Pakistan’s
Hunza Valley in
December 2021. The
ceremony, which locals
say last took place in
Hunza in the 1970s,
involves the collection
of ice from a “male”
and a “female” glacier,
which is deposited in
a hole in a shadowy
area of the mountains
in the hope that it gives
rise to a new ice flow
to irrigate the valley
below. The men, all
from Hunza, chose to
re-create a moment
from the full cere-
mony on the (female)
Shispare Glacier to pre-
serve the tradition for
future generations.
L L A D O C , KO S OVO ( L E F T ) , P R I S T I N A , KO S OVO ( R I G H T )
A Lada is enclosed Serbian forces on

YOUNG in a glass box at a
memorial to early
January 31, 1997.
A decade of hostilities
KOSOVO MOVES heroes of the Kosovo
Liberation Army (KLA)
resulted in 78 days of
NATO bombings
FORWARD in Lladoc, Kosovo.
The car was carrying
of then Yugoslavia
in 1999. The Republic
KLA members Zahir of Kosovo declared
Pajaziti, Edmond its independence
Hoxha, and Hakif in 2008 and is now
Zejnullahu when it recognized by nearly
was ambushed by a hundred countries.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JUSTYNA MIELNIKIEWICZ •
"
A musician prepares
for the inaugural
performance of the
Kosovo Opera in Pris- It was both touching and inspiring to see the country,
tina’s Palace of Youth still in a deep mourning, processing its war traumas,
and Sports. Albanian-
majority Kosovo has
while at the same time moving forward, swiftly
nearly 1.8 million peo- becoming a modern European nation.
ple and one of Europe’s
youngest populations; —JUSTYNA MIELNIKIEWICZ
more than half of its
citizens are under 30.

ZURICH,
SWITZERLAND
MAKING
FUEL FROM
THIN AIR
•
PHOTOGRAPH BY
DAV I D E
MONTELEONE
A small refinery on
the roof of a laboratory
at ETH Zurich pulls car-
bon dioxide and water
directly from the air
and feeds them into
a reactor that concen-
trates solar radiation.
This generates extreme
heat, splitting the mol-
ecules and creating a
mixture that ultimately
can be processed into
kerosene or methanol.
Researchers hope this
system will eventually
produce market-ready,
carbon-neutral jet fuel.
One Swiss airline has
already announced
plans to use the fuel.
B LU E A SpaceX Falcon 9 says that the increased
rocket, launched from frequency of launches
CYPRESS LAKE,
Cape Canaveral in the without fanfare “sug-
F LO R I DA early hours of June 19, gests that we have
streaks above a stand crossed over into a
of bald cypress trees. new era where cosmic
This was the second missions are simply
MAGICAL time in less than a year

that a SpaceX rocket
business as usual.”
MISSION IN appeared in photog-

rapher Mac Stone’s •
THE SKY frame while he was
shooting at night in a
remote swamp. Stone
PHOTOGRAPH BY
M AC S TO N E

MASAI MARA Photographed at with female allies.
night with an infra- These African pred-
N AT I O N A L
red camera, a spotted ators, the largest
R E S E RV E , hyena that scientists members of the hyena
K E N YA nicknamed Palazzo family, weigh up to
submissively grins 190 pounds, and
and lays her ears back females are on aver-
as Moulin Rouge, the age 10 percent heavier
IN HYENA
clan’s dominant female than males. Clans,
at the time, towers some topping a hun-
CLANS,
over her. Palazzo’s dred animals, form
cub peers out from complex societies.
FEMALES
between them. Unlike
most social mammals,
•
RULE
females rule among
spotted hyenas, main-
taining their hierarchy PHOTOGRAPH BY
through relationships J E N G U Y TO N

TO O L K I T
FIT FOR AN
ELEPHANT 2
•
PHOTOGRAPH BY
MARK THIESSEN
a delicate camera while

H OW D O YO U P R O T E C T
photographing a powerful yet sometimes skittish
animal? That was the dilemma faced by Jasper
Doest last year when he was in Gabon to cover the
effects of climate change on forest elephants. (One
of the resulting images appears in this issue on
page 54.) He needed a way to capture the forag-
ing pachyderms without frightening them away
from their food source. For help, Doest turned to
National Geographic photo engineer Tom O’Brien,
who designs and builds solutions for all kinds of
field assignment hurdles. In this case, that meant
developing an extraordinarily strong camera trap
that wouldn’t disturb the elephants or the area’s
protected trees, and making multiples of every-
thing as backup.
1. Camera-trap 5. Ball heads

housings They held the strobe to
To withstand the pokes a mounting device.
and prods of elephants, 6. Trail cameras
the world’s largest land These off-the-shelf items
animal, O’Brien made steel helped monitor the cus-
rainproof containers that tom camera traps, but they
weighed 35 pounds when were “getting smashed and
“fully loaded,” he says. tusked,” O’Brien says.
2. Ratchet straps 7. Passive infrared
Instead of screws that motion sensors
might harm the trees, After detecting infrared
straps secured the traps. energy emitted from an
3. Wireless strobes animal’s body, they fired
Infrared flashes illuminated the camera shutter.
the elephants without 8. Batteries
scaring them away. 5
Sixty lithium ones powered
4. Beam-break the traps and strobes.
motion sensors 9. Mounts
This two-part tool sent O’Brien welded heavy-duty
infrared light across a trail. supports for the traps. In
When an animal broke the total, the gear he designed
beam, that triggered the for Doest tipped the scales
camera to take a photo. at roughly 1,100 pounds.

3
9 8
COMPOSITE OF TWO IMAGES

C AU C A ,
C O LO M B I A
A
COMMUNITY
GRIEVES
•
PHOTOGRAPH BY
F LO R E N C E G O U P I L
The family of the

Indigenous Misak
leader Nazaria
Calambás Tunubalá
mourns at her funeral
in Cauca. In October
2021 the former mayor,
then 34 years old,
was gunned down
while defending a
water source. A 2016
peace deal between
Colombia and the
Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia
(FARC) was meant
to end bloodshed
and open up oppor-
tunities in former
conflict zones. Instead,
more than 1,300
Colombians—many of
them Indigenous and
Afro-Colombian land
defenders and environ-
mentalists—have been
killed resisting mining,
logging, and drug
trafficking in former
FARC territories.
P R Z E M YŚ L , P O L A N D
After Russia invaded Kuchebko, 72, left the

UKRAINIAN Ukraine on February 24,
photographer Anasta-
air-raid sirens behind
but worries for her son,
REFUGEES SHARE sia Taylor-Lind traveled
to Przemyśl, a Polish
who’s in Kyiv. She prays
to God to “save not
THEIR STORIES town near the Ukrainian
border. Outside a
only my son but the
whole Ukraine.” Most
school gym serving as refugees are women
a shelter, she set up a and children, since the
makeshift studio to Ukrainian government
photograph displaced required 18-to-60-
Ukrainians. Ludmyla year-old men to stay.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY A N A S TA S I A TAY L O R- L I N D •
"
Oksana Hapbarova
(at left), 18, says that
she and her mother
(also named Oksana, When I took this portrait, the mother looked at me and
39), waited out Russian joked, ‘Do you want me to look like a refugee right now?’
attacks in a Kyiv bomb
shelter. “For six days
It was a powerful reminder of the harmful stereotypes we
in the shelter, I couldn’t photographers perpetuate when people lose their homes.
sleep, because I was
scared I would never —A N A S TA S I A TAY L O R- L I N D
wake up,” says the
younger Hapbarova.

C A R AC A S , Blue-and-yellow home,” says biologist macaws numbered
macaws perch on María González- around 400. González
V E N E ZU E L A
a rooftop in Caracas, Azuaje, a professor at believes they’ve
waiting to be fed Simón Bolívar Univer- increased since the
by locals. Native to sity. “Some escaped; pandemic: “They came
the tropical forests others were released.” back to recover the
BRIGHT and savannas of South
America, these macaws
Four species populate
the city of three
empty spaces.”
SPOTS have proliferated in

Venezuela’s capital
million, though blue-
and-yellow macaws
IN CITY city over the past few
decades because of
dominate the others.
Before raucous anti- •
SKIES the pet trade. “Entire
generations grew up
government protests
in 2017 and 2019 drove PHOTOGRAPH BY
with a parrot, para- birds to the outskirts, A L E JA N D R O
keet, or a macaw at blue-and-yellow CEGARRA
AMBOSELI
N AT I O N A L PA R K ,
K E N YA
IS AGE JUST
A NUMBER?
ASK THE
BABOONS
•
PHOTOGRAPH BY
NICHOLE SOBECKI
Researchers gently
take samples and
measurements of a
tranquilized baboon
named Olduvai in the
Amboseli ecosystem
of southern Kenya
before releasing him
unharmed back into
the wild. Since 1971,
scientists have mon-
itored Amboseli’s
baboons to understand
how they age and how
social behaviors affect
their survival—findings
that could help us
understand our own
biology. Recent studies
show that the biological
ages of baboons—
as measured by their
DNA’s chemical wear
and tear—differ from
their calendar ages.
The baboons most
prone to living fast and
dying young: males
that had clawed their
way to the top of the
social hierarchy.
• 78
On low coastal land in

the province of Central
Java, Indonesia, villag-
ers from Timbulsloko
prepare to add mud
to their cemetery to
raise it above the high
tide line. Before add-
ing mud, they mark the
locations of the graves
with bamboo sticks.
AJI
STYAWA N
O N E STO RY H A S D OM I N AT E D
THIS PHOTOGRAPHER’S CAREER:
FLOODING ON THE
ISLAND WHERE HE LIVES.
• 80
I GREW UP in Central Java. My

first job was working as a travel
guide for visitors, then for stu-
dent interns from Europe. That’s
when I started using a camera,
and then I knew I wanted to be
a photojournalist.
I began to freelance, but I
wanted more training. In 2015
I got to go to Bali for the Foundry
Photojournalism Workshop,
where professional photogra-
phers teach students like me at
low cost. And that’s the start.
In the workshop class taught by
[National Geographic contribut-
ing photographer] Maggie Steber,
it’s like I was a baby, or blind, or
starting from zero. But I tried to
learn and to hear every single
word that Maggie said. At the end, in Demak Regency on the northern entered homes for six to nine
there was a festival and awards coast of Central Java, in hamlets hours a day. But in the last two
for the best students in each class. and villages not far from my home. years, it seems flooding has been
Maggie called my name: “Aji!” I Some 17,000 named islands unpredictable and has happened
never expected something like make up Indonesia. On my home in other months. The ocean has
that: “What?” And then I was cry- island of Java, coastal areas are engulfed thousands of acres.
ing on the stage. threatened by deforestation, Once it was farmland; gradually, it
A few months after that, a sinking land from groundwater changed into fish ponds and man-
press photo agency asked me to extraction, and rising seas caused grove forests; now it’s submerged
be a freelancer. Then one client by climate change. A few years by rising seas.
gave me an assignment, and then ago, the worst flooding in Demak When I went to take photos,
others. And in 2017 I started photo- Regency used to be from March the villagers told me, “So many
graphing the sea rise and flooding until August, when tidewaters media are coming here, and there
AHMAD SAMSUDIN
"
Timbulsloko village made it hard
for the living to visit the graves
The ocean has of their ancestors or bury their
engulfed thousands of dead. Over the years, I have visited
there many times. In September
acres. Once it was 2021, I photographed the raising
farmland; gradually, it of the cemetery, which was often
changed into fish underwater. Villagers removed the
ponds and mangrove gravestones and, using earthmov-
forests; now ing machinery from the govern-
ment, added five feet of soil. They
it’s submerged by put each marker back in place and
rising seas. added a new fence.
This could save the cemetery
—A J I S T YA W A N
for two more years, some villagers
told me. But eight months later, it
already was washing away.
is no change.” After that, I’ve tried
to make this project more serious. OMETIMES PEOPLE say,
Sometimes I go without my cam-
era, just to talk to people. They
are so angry, after many years of
nothing being done to help them.
S “OK, this is climate
change,” and maybe their
home is far away, so they
think it’s not a problem.
In Central Java, my home is
N T H E PA ST,people here were about nine miles from the coast-
I farmers. Then they became

fishermen. The flooding has
changed their culture, their
livelihoods. As I take pictures,
they tell me how it was. “In this
line. And now the water’s intru-
sion from the coastline is about
four and a half miles. It’s halfway
to my home.
These villagers are my neigh-
area, everything is green, Aji,” bors. I feel they are my sisters and
one villager says. “Everywhere my brothers; we are the same—
it’s coconut trees.” They still same life, same faith, same story.
remember in their hearts. So people have to understand: If
A man working on a road with a this is happening anywhere, it’s a
hoe told me, “You know, Aji, when big, big problem to everyone.
I was young, this hoe was meant When I’m in my home, I always
for farming.” But now he tries to remember the people I have met
Aji Styawan stands in use it to fix the road because of the while documenting this crisis of
tidal floodwater to
rising sea level. And it can’t fix the rising seas. I’ll be taking a shower
photograph resident
Kusmiyatun on her real problem, because the water and think what the villagers have
terrace. Her home keeps undoing whatever he does. to do to get water—this year, their
faces the main road The young men now, the chil- freshwater is going salty. I’ll think,
of Sriwulan Village dren, they are moving to the city, When they’re asleep, there’s water;
in Demak Regency, leaving this story behind. And when they eat, they’re in water.
on the north coast
some of the elders have had a And even if their cemetery has
of Central Java,
where sinking land, chance to leave, but they don’t been raised up, when they die,
coastal erosion, and want it. They say, “I will adapt they will be buried below sea level,
rising seas result in to these conditions, whatever and the holes that they dig will
extreme flooding. it takes. If I have to be buried, I have seawater inside.
will be buried here, on the land But life must go on. And my job
of my ancestors.” is telling their stories. •
The flooding of the cemetery of —As told to Patricia Edmonds
MUMBAI,
INDIA
SURGING
AHEAD
•
PHOTOGRAPH BY
A R KO DAT TO
Pedestrians, motor-
cycles, and taxis crowd
a street in the financial
center of Mumbai,
a metropolis that’s
home to about 21
million people. Two-
and three-wheelers
are the most popu-
lar private vehicles in
India, and the country
has pledged that 80
percent of them will be
electric by 2030. This
shift is an important
part of the country’s
efforts to reduce its
greenhouse gas emis-
sions by embracing
renewable energy
sources such as solar,
wind, and hydrogen.
But progress on that
front is challenged
by India’s explosive
growth: Its energy-
hungry middle class
is doubling as the
country is poised
to overtake China
as the world’s most
populous nation.
P O RTA L , A Townsend’s big- result, moths are less
eared bat (Corynorhi- likely to take evasive
A R I ZO N A nus townsendii) may action as the bat draws
look conspicuous lit near, as seen in this
up by a strobe light. four-photo series. After
But make no mistake: closely approaching a
A MOTH’S It’s a stealth preda-

tor. The echolocating
moth (1), C. townsen-
dii reaches to grab the
NIGHTMARE calls of C. townsendii

are 20 to 45 decibels
prey with its wing (2)
before transferring it
quieter than those of into its tail pouch (3).
other aerial-hunting Meal secured, the bat
bat species, accord- curls its tail to chow
ing to work by Aaron mid-flight (4). The
Corcoran, a University entire sequence hap-
of Colorado, Colorado pens in about half
Springs researcher and a second.
National Geographic
Explorer who studies •
the evolutionary arms
race between bats and PHOTOGRAPHS BY
their moth prey. As a MARK THIESSEN

1
4
WA R D DEKEN In northern Austra- in September when year, Indigenous work
lia’s Arnhem Land, water has dried up and crews set small fires in
I ND IG EN O US
Rosemary Nabulwad, the reptiles retreat nearby grasses to help
P ROT ECT ED ARE A , Arijay Nabarlambarl, into the mud to keep keep future wildfires
AUST RAL I A Margaret Nabulwad, cool. The five hunters, from raging out of con-
Janice Nalorlman, and all family members, trol. For these rangers,
Lorna Nabulwad probe are rangers for the six hours of hunting on
marshy grasslands Warddeken Indige- their day off yielded
STEWARDS
with long-handled nous Protected Area. only two turtles.
crowbars to hunt tur- Dedicated in 2009, the
OF THEIR
tles, a popular local nearly 5,400-square-
delicacy. Turtle hunts mile reserve is managed •
LAND
happen during the and protected by its
hot, dry kurrung sea- traditional Aboriginal PHOTOGRAPH BY
son, which begins owners. Earlier in the M AT T H E W A B B OT T
DA L L A S ,
TEXAS
KING
OF THE
TROPHIES
•
PHOTOGRAPH BY
DAV I D C H A N C E L L O R
A taxidermied African
lion is transported
on a dolly during the
Dallas Safari Club’s con-
vention. U.S. hunters
used to account for the
majority of South Afri-
ca’s multimillion-dollar
lion-breeding industry,
which supplies the
adult animals for trophy
hunts, cubs for tourist
interactions, and their
bones for traditional
Chinese and South-
east Asian medicines.
Many of the estimated
10,000 captive lions in
South Africa are kept
in dirty, overcrowded
spaces and fed poor
diets. In 2021 the gov-
ernment announced
its intention to end the
industry, saying it does
not contribute to help-
ing the species, which
has lost 90 percent
of its historic African
range in the past 120
years. Since then, few
steps have been taken
toward this goal.
KO B U K R I V E R Captured by drone, contiguous United Climate change, indus-
caribou from the States. The Western trial development,
VA L L E Y,
Western Arctic herd Arctic herd now and increased hunt-
ALASKA gallop across a valley numbers fewer than ing efficiency may
near the small town 200,000, its lowest all affect the survival
of Ambler during point in decades—a of these ungulates.
their spring migration. concern for Indige-
HERDS IN Caribou populations

throughout much
nous Alaskans such as
the Inupiat, who rely
•
RETREAT of North America are
declining mysteriously;
they have already dis-
on caribou as a staple
food source and con-
sider it an integral PHOTOGRAPH BY
appeared from the part of their culture. K AT I E O R L I N S K Y
WA S H I N G TO N ,
D.C .
STILL
POINT FOR
A NATION
•
PHOTOGRAPH BY
SASHA
A R U T Y U N OVA
A long camera
exposure blurs the
crowd of tourists inside
the Lincoln Memorial
in Washington, D.C.
Carved from 38,000
tons of marble, lime-
stone, and granite,
and visited by millions
of people each year,
the edifice honoring
the 16th U.S. president
holds a massive statue
of Abraham Lincoln by
sculptor Daniel Chester
French. The monu-
ment, which celebrated
its centennial this year,
has been the backdrop
for civil rights pro-
tests, a prayer vigil for
COVID-19 victims, and
countless family snap-
shots. “In using a long
exposure, I was trying
to capture a feeling
of the sea of visitors
to the memorial each
year, while positioning
the Lincoln statue as
this steady constant,”
says photographer
Sasha Arutyunova.
• 94
WAY N E L AW R E N C E
‘ I T H I N K I ’M S OM E H OW C H A N G E D BY E V E RY T H I N G
AND EVERYONE I PHOTOGRAPH.’
SUMMER 2022 FOUND TWO portraits in a variety of settings and have been roaming the streets
National Geographic contributors situations. Here, he discusses his and finding people to photo-
in Durban, South Africa: Brook- work with Roberts. graph. How hard is it for you to
lyn, New York- and Detroit-based TA R A R O B E R T S : Hey, Wayne. approach strangers and ask to
photojournalist Wayne Lawrence WAY N E L AW R E N C E : Hey, Tara. shoot their portraits?
and Atlanta-based National It used to be very challenging for
Geographic Explorer Tara Roberts. We’ve been traveling around me to approach complete strang-
For nearly a month, Lawrence shot Durban, and you, my friend, ers, but so much of my success
QINISO DLADLA
“The warmth I felt in

Durban was so refresh-
ing,” Lawrence says.
Opposite page, street
vendor Ongeziwe
Mtate and Lawrence
look at frames he’d taken
of her. Below, Unathi
Madalane (at left) and
Tshiamo Maretela enjoy
the beach.
• 96
Portraits of some of and Zwano Mthembu;

the people Lawrence Nokubonga Mdluli
encountered in Durban, with her mother,
clockwise from this Nobuhle Dlamini;
page: Melusi Gcumisa; and Snothile Nkosi (at
Pontsho Name; couple left) with her friend
Hlerh Khumalo (at left) Anelisa Ludonga.
• 98
or failure depends on approach. I the faces, mannerisms, the swag-
"
learned this early on. I’m naturally ger all felt familiar to me.
introverted, but my confidence
has definitely blossomed over Tell me something interest-
time. Roaming is an exhilarat- Capturing someone’s ing that happened off camera
ing process—it is what feeds all true essence is during your roaming. I know
of my work. the most difficult you always have stories!
thing about portrait One day in Overport, a predom-
What do you say to these photography … My inantly Indian neighborhood,
people? an elderly Indian woman walked
Usually I’ll greet someone and pay
approach is to up to me and in a very courte-
them a compliment. Then I’ll intro- always gauge a ous way asked me to photograph
duce myself and explain exactly person’s energy and her. Then an African woman who
what I’m doing, and it’s either a yes try to match it. she didn’t like passed by, and
or a no. I’ve learned to never take she started cursing at her, calling
the rejections personally. — W AY N E L A W R E N C E her Blackie. Then she turned to
me as if everything was OK. I was
How do you even begin try- more than a little disturbed. The
ing to capture the essence of a way apartheid segregated com-
stranger in a photograph? It was in edit when I realized that munities of color is still present
Great question. Capturing some- allowing them that space to just and devastating.
one’s true essence is the most be made for the best pictures.
difficult thing about portrait pho- Were you changed in any way
tography, and I fail most times. What about South Africa and as a result of this project?
Before I start making pictures, its people inspires you? I think I’m somehow changed
I’m usually studying a person’s South Africa, Mandela, and the by everything and everyone I
body language, paying attention struggle for liberation have always photograph. It all adds to life’s
to gestures, expressions, etc., so I held a mystical place in my psy- tapestry, no?
know what can work in a given sit- che. Plus, since the dismantling
uation. My approach is to always of apartheid is relatively recent, I hear you! Where do you want
gauge a person’s energy and try to I felt that it would be interesting to go with this project? What’s
match it. It’s important to be fluid, to travel here and engage with your big vision?
though, and I’ll know everything communities that are not so far I’ll definitely be returning to
is jelling when there is no need to removed from that trauma. So Durban. I like the idea of merg-
give much direction. far I’ve been inspired by how alive ing beach portraits with portraits
people’s eyes are, and I love how of people in more urban areas.
Which image from this bunch important having a sense of style I’d love to turn this work into a
most moved you? is to everyday people! book and a citywide public exhi-
There are a few, but one that bition in Durban. Then a travel-
really touched me is the image You feel a personal connection ing exhibition. I’ve also spoken
I made of a couple in their early to the country, then? to officials here about selecting a
20s, smiling and sitting close Absolutely. I do feel a personal few photographers who are pas-
together outside a Durban connection to the country and sionate about Indigenous story-
shopping center [see page 97, at the continent. Coming from the telling, workshopping with them
top right]. They were definitely other side of the world, I am an and having their work exhibited
excited about being photo- outsider; still, I believe that we as well.
graphed. What I like most about are of one and the same family,
their portrait is that I didn’t ini- and I approach everyone respect- Excellent, man. I love this work
tially put too much of myself into fully. The warmth I felt in Durban and wish you much success.
it and just allowed their joy to was so refreshing, even though Thank you. •
bubble to the surface. Later in the I struggled to retain most of the
session I can see now that I was Zulu language, and that tongue This interview was edited for
giving way too much direction. click especially! But somehow, length and clarity.
Indian Ocean waves

lap the Durban beach
in the background,
as Sinethemba Cele
(at left) and her hus-
band, Nathi Cele, flank
their son, Anathi, and
daughter, Ibanathi.
M E R A DA L I R After lying dormant Reykjavik, the spec-
for 800 years, Iceland’s tacle drew thousands
VA L L E Y,
Reykjanes Peninsula of curious onlookers.
ICELAND erupted twice in less When eruptions are
than 17 months, most new, says photogra-
recently on August 3, pher Chris Burkard,
belching scarlet “you never really know
A FIERY streams of molten rock

into the uninhabited
what they are going to
do. It’s a bit unnerving.”
LANDSCAPE Meradalir Valley and

initiating what some
•
AWAKENS scientists suspect may
be decades of fresh
volcanic activity. Just PHOTOGRAPH BY
an hour’s drive from CHRIS BURKARD
T E L AV I V–YA F O, A rat tries to rescue groups, and choose response is best pre-
a trapped comrade at not to assist rats from dicted by the value we
ISRAEL
Tel Aviv University. unfamiliar groups. In place on the well-being
Research indicates that contrast, adolescent of others, rather than
when adult rats come rats typically help the on sharing their pain,”
to the aid of others, the trapped rat no mat- says neuroscientist
THE reward center of the

helper’s brain activates,
ter what. For rats, at
least, the empathy bias
Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal.
POWER OF just as in humans.

But the rodents show
for members of one’s
own group emerges •
COMMUNITY empathy only toward
rats in distress that
in adulthood. “What
we found is that bio- PHOTOGRAPH BY
are from familiar social logically, the helping PAO L O V E R ZO N E

PULPÍ,
S PA I N
GROWING
A CRYSTAL
TEMPLE
•
PHOTOGRAPH BY
RO B B I E S H O N E
Sparkling hollow rocks

known as geodes
are often thought of
as desktop curios.
But some of them can
be gigantic monu-
ments to geology. The
390-cubic-foot Pulpí
Geode was found in
1999 within an aban-
doned mine, and it
is filled with gypsum
crystals up to seven
feet long. Here, Uni-
versity of Almería
researcher Fernando
Gázquez measures the
geode’s atmospheric
conditions to see
whether tourist visits
are affecting the for-
mations. He reported
in 2022 that the shining
spires grew between
164,000 and 60,000
years ago, when rain-
water seeped into an
aquifer and dissolved
deposits of gypsum
and anhydrite. Over
millennia, the gypsum
came out of solution
and crystallized on the
sides of the chamber.
GY U M R I , A R M E N I A
Istanbul-based spotted the butterfly

HUNTING photographer Rena
Effendi traveled
in the wild, she did
photograph a preserved
SPECIMENS AND to Armenia and Azer-
baijan in search of
one in the specimen-
packed cabin of her
MEMORIES Satyrus effendi, a rare
and endemic butterfly
father’s protégé Parkev
Kazarian, a taxidermist
named after her father, in the mountainous
the late Soviet Azer- town of Gyumri, Arme-
baijani entomologist nia. “I loved that it was
Rustam Effendi. While still beautiful, even
Effendi hasn’t yet dead,” she says.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY RENA EFFENDI •
"
Kazarian, an ethnic
Armenian born in
Azerbaijan, has lived
in Armenia since 1989 We had this war, and we have generations of people
due to the ongoing who grew up in this war, lived through this war, and there
conflict between
the two countries.
I am welcomed to Armenia because of a single butterfly.
“I wanted to capture
—RENA EFFENDI
his loneliness and
isolation,” says Effendi.
“It’s like he’s trapped
in a time capsule.”

EMAS Under a full moon on some 50 million years the landscape. But
a hazy morning in Bra- and are among the few tapirs are declining
N AT I O N A L
zil’s Emas National large-bodied mammals because of defor-
PA R K , Park, a lowland tapir to have survived the estation, agricultural
BRAZIL known to park staff last ice age’s megafau- development, hunt-
as Preciosa ambles nal extinctions. As they ing, and vehicle strikes.
down a road. Photog- voraciously eat fruit, According to the
rapher Katie Orlinsky tapirs also efficiently International Union
recalls the surprising spread the seeds of for Conservation of
GARDENER encounter, noting that
animals can behave
many plant species.
In fact, Brazil’s low-
Nature, all tapir species
are either vulnerable
OF THE unpredictably under
full moons. “It was defi-
land tapirs like Preciosa
tend to travel and def-
or endangered.
FOREST nitely not this tapir’s

usual route,” she says.
ecate more often in
degraded forests than
•
The stubby-trunked in undisturbed ones, PHOTOGRAPH BY
creatures go back which helps reseed K AT I E O R L I N S K Y

• 110
LY N N
JOHNSON
A STORY ON HUMAN
TOUCH PUTS THIS VETERAN
PHOTOGRAPHER IN
A FAMILIAR ROLE: TRYING
TO MAKE THE
INVISIBLE VISIBLE.
University of Virginia
neuroscientists record
the brain activity
of nine-month-old
Ian Boardman, while
brushing his skin
to activate nerve
fiber responses.
• 112
in Cleveland,
S O I ’ M I N A PA R K quiet in her dreamy eyes.
where I happen to be visiting a I have to get up the courage,
friend, and I’m just … looking for always, doesn’t matter how long
human touch. Pure. Simple. I’ve been doing this: Hi. My
And here is this young couple name’s Lynn, I’m about to start a
lying in a hammock, facing each project about touch for National
other, legs intertwined. You can Geographic; I saw you here, I
see them touching, but also you thought maybe you’d have some-
can feel it, her response to it, the thing to share about that.
ERIKA LARSEN
At a Pittsburgh say, “Pretend I'm not here,” but

playground, I share a
"
one day I heard myself and how
moment with Morgan
absurd that was, so what I’ve
Barns, 10. He’s fasci-
nated by the mulch come to say is, “Is it OK that I’m
and dirt; I’m fascinated
I want that moment. here?” I keep checking in. I want
by him. For 10 years I want that them to articulate the response.
I’ve been photograph-
ing Morgan and his
beautiful light. And now I was driving to Ari-
I want the person zona with my own broken heart.
brother, Max, 12,
My mother had just passed away.
who are both on the on the other I got to the farm, saw a few ani-
autism spectrum. —LJ
side of the camera to mals, dust, harsh sunlight. I was
be respected, going to need a way to sink in.
and understood. To comprehend. The wonderful
woman who runs the farm is a
— LY N N J O H N S O N trauma survivor—incest and
Do you mind if I take a photo- addiction—and it was listening
graph? to her story that showed me
Because I’m going to have to where to be. Where to wait. What
move into their personal space, if to gather.
they say no, I understand. But so A child with sensory issues
often in my work I’m looking for everybody—I mean everybody, stood at the entrance to one of
emotional truth, trying to make strangers in the grocery store. the paddocks, warily regarding
something invisible visible. I wanted to know what people a standing cow. She was there to
I want to move in closer— cared about. feel the cow’s warmth but to be
they say yes, so now I know it’s And as I read the scientific arti- safe had to wait until it lay down.
all right—and then I just stop cles, I realized I was most inter-
thinking. ested in the intimacy of touch, the a storytell-
C C A S I O N A L LY
I move around, I’m body and
an eye, an appetite, a sensory
gathering device. I want that
moment. I want that beautiful
light. I want the person on the
deep need for human connection.
When the photo editor learned
of an unusual refuge in Arizona,
for example, a farm where people
with emotional or sensory chal-
O ing moment comes at you
all at once: The wired-up
baby on page 110 was
part of a study on touch recep-
tors in human skin, and when
other side of the camera to be lenges find comfort in gentle he beamed at the researcher,
respected, and understood. contact with rescued animals, I that was a moment; it just hap-
A lot of it is patience. You know thought: Touch. Healing. Yes. pened. But more of the time you’re
that old sound in the movies, Photojournalism is all about finding your way in, practicing
where they’re trying to tune a looking outward, explaining patience. Neither that cow nor
shortwave radio, and you hear to others. But we can’t sustain the girl cared about our timetable.
the buzzing warble of the dial as it this life if it’s not at some level We stood around.
searches? In my psyche I’m doing about us. I think that’s where the Finally the cow lay down, the
that, trying to get all my fibers on powerful work happens, acknowl- little girl spread out the blanket
the one right wavelength. edging that you’re also doing it she was carrying, and she sat.
for yourself. She’d done this before, I could
P R OJ E C T L I K E T H I S — writ- At some point in my career, I see. The cow laid its head on her
A ing about the science of

human touch, for the
magazine’s June 2022
issue—it’s a partnership. Me the
photographer, Cynthia Gorney the
saw how much my work pulls me
close to people with complicated
and difficult lives. I’m five feet
tall and use a small, quiet camera,
a Leica with no motor drive, so to
lap. The girl put one palm against
its snout and rested her cheek
against its skin, just behind its
left ear. She closed her eyes. The
look of stress drained out of her.
writer, parallel paths. some extent I’m able to minimize I stopped thinking then, and
As I began my own research, my physical presence. When I was got to work. •
I was talking about the story to a young photographer, I used to —As told to Cynthia Gorney
MANILA, For a peso (less than platforms, leading elected leader of
two cents), internet media analysts to dub the nation’s more than
PHILIPPINES
vending machines the Philippines patient 110 million people.
bring the boundless zero in what has turned “Lies travel faster than
digital world to Filipi- into a global disin- the truth,” says Celine
nos for a few minutes formation pandemic. Samson of Vera Files,
NAVIGATING in a Manila neighbor-

hood. Filipinos spend
Dis- and misinformation
became particularly
one of Facebook’s
fact-checking partners.
THE an average of four

hours a day on social
acute in the run-up to
this year’s presidential
TANGLED media, making them

some of the world’s
election, which saw
Ferdinand “Bongbong”
•
WEB most active users. But
false content flourishes
Marcos, Jr., the son
of deposed dictator
PHOTOGRAPH BY
HANNAH REYES
on the country’s online Ferdinand Marcos, MORALES

N A I N G VA L L E Y, PA K I S TA N
Shadman Ali, 26, 124-mile Sufi route

PILGRIMS CROSS shades his head from
the brutal heat as he
across deserts and
mountain passes to
A CHANGING holds aloft his pigeon
near the holy spring of
Balochistan Province.
Those who complete
LANDSCAPE Naing Sharif in Sindh
Province, Pakistan.
this journey are blessed
with the honorific
The pilgrim and his “Lahooti”; a cave
winged companion, complex called Lahoot
brightly colored for Lamakan lies close
easy identification, are to the final stop on
traveling an ancient the journey.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY M AT T H I E U PA L E Y •
"
Also a pilgrim, Safar Ali,
53, stands in the waters
near Naing Sharif. “We
have all come from the Meeting the pilgrims was an immersion into a world
same stream,” he says. of kind men who express their loving and sensitive
Heavy rains and glacier
melt, an increasing
side with great beauty. The pigeon is a pilgrim too,
occurrence due to cli- because the pigeon followed the entire walk.
mate change, flooded
the region in summer — M AT T H I E U PA L E Y
2022, displacing nearly
eight million people.

M I N N E R I YA ,
SRI LANKA
FELLOW
FORAGERS
•
PHOTOGRAPH BY
B R E N T S T I RTO N
Wild Asian elephants

mingle with cattle at
a garbage dump near
Minneriya, in central
Sri Lanka. The island
nation is home to some
6,000 pachyderms
living in close contact
with people. Having
lost their lowland
forest home, elephants
now seek out human-
affected habitats,
including croplands,
and are master gen-
eralists, capable of
eating at least a hun-
dred different plants.
That doesn’t mean
that Sri Lankan ele-
phants are thriving;
they instead may be
coping. Researchers
are tracking levels
of cortisol—a stress
hormone—that could
be detrimental to the
elephants’ health.
WA R DA K
P ROV I N C E ,
A F G H A N I S TA N
ROAD
TO THE
FUTURE?
•
PHOTOGRAPH BY
BALAZS GARDI
Rafiullah, 10, packs

dirt into a bomb
crater on Afghanistan’s
National Highway 1
near Maidan Shahr,
Wardak Province, in
March. The 1,400-mile-
long ring road was
first built in the 1950s
and ’60s but has been
ruined by decades
of war and neglect.
When the restored
Kabul-Kandahar stretch
was reopened in 2003,
it was proclaimed
the “road to Afghan-
istan’s future.” But
now boys like Rafiul-
lah and his 15-year-old
brother serve as ad hoc
repair crews, relying
on tips from passing
motorists—the equiv-
alent of two dollars on
a good day—to help
support their fami-
lies. Save the Children
estimates that nearly
one-fifth of Afghan
families have sent chil-
dren out to work, as
incomes have plunged
since the Taliban take-
over in August 2021.
N E VA D O Fringed in clouds ripple effects across effort to document the
against the south- the huge watershed watershed from the
AU Z A N GAT E ,
eastern night sky, of the Amazon River. Andes to the Atlantic.
P E RU the snowy peak of In August, the National Photographer Thomas
Nevado Auzangate, Geographic and Rolex Peschak made this
the highest mountain Perpetual Planet image in June and will
in the Andes of south- Amazon Expedition explore Amazonia’s
THE ICE
ern Peru, looms large worked with Peruvian diverse aquatic eco-
above a waterfall. partners to install systems for 396 days
NOURISHING
Glacial melt from a weather station on through 2024.
Nevado Auzangate is the mountain at 20,830
•
AMAZONIA
a primary freshwater feet—the highest in
source for ecosys- the tropical Andes.
tems and communities The station is just PHOTOGRAPH BY
downstream, with one part of a broader THOMAS PESCHAK
L I B E RT Y,
N E W YO R K
THE COST
OF COYOTES
•
PHOTOGRAPH BY
KARINE AIGNER
Hunters bring dead

coyotes to be weighed
in the parking lot
of the White Sulphur
Springs Fire Depart-
ment in New York. Each
year, Sullivan County’s
sportsmen’s clubs
sponsor a three-day
coyote-killing contest,
offering $2,000 to
the hunter who bags
the heaviest animal.
Despite being one
of the most perse-
cuted animals in the
U.S., coyotes have
expanded their range
to 49 of the 50 states.
At least half a million
coyotes are killed each
year for the fur trade,
for predator control,
and for sport, but hunt-
ing them with the goal
of reducing their num-
bers usually doesn’t
work. Eliminating coy-
otes only creates a
vacuum that is filled by
transient coyotes. In
addition, females that
lose family members
have larger litters at
younger ages.
MOUNT EVEREST
History was made on climbers rest and sip

MAKING HISTORY May 12, 2022, when
seven members of the
from oxygen tanks
before ascending or
ON EVEREST first all-Black Everest
expedition—along with
descending. After
training alongside the
eight Nepali guides— team for nearly a year,
summited the world’s photographer Evan
highest peak (at 29,032 Green says he felt
feet). James “KG” Kag- ready “to capture little
ambi reclines on the pieces of personality,
Balcony, a flat expanse times when people
at 27,600 feet where relaxed a little bit.”
PHOTOGRAPHS BY E VA N G R E E N •
"
At sunset on April 27,
Green caught climber
Thomas Moore walk-
ing amid the tents It was difficult to keep my camera protected from the
pitched at Camp I and elements yet quickly accessible to capture fast-moving
framed by Everest (at
left), Lhotse (center),
situations. My batteries died due to cold; I was able to revive
and Nuptse (at right). them by putting them inside my mittens during the climb.
“I was so cold, but I was
just trying to get a final — E VA N G R E E N
shot before the sun
went down,” he says.

LANCASTER Hammered by wind and Pacific. Instead,
and waves, the crew Franklin and his crew
S O U N D,
of the 47-foot Polar of 128 found nothing
C A N A DA Sun crosses the mouth but horror: Erebus and
of northern Canada’s Terror, their two ships,
Lancaster Sound—with were trapped in ice
nearly 3,000 miles of and had to be deserted.
SAILING
sailing already behind The entire party perished.
them. This National Led by adventurer Mark
TOWARD
Geographic expedition Synnott, the new expe-
charts a path through dition aims to uncover
ANSWERS
the Arctic from Maine the mystery of what
to Alaska, retracing the happened to the sailors,
steps of Sir John Frank- based on the testimony
lin. In 1845 Franklin of local Inuit.
led an ill-fated British
Royal Navy attempt
to navigate the North- •
west Passage, the
fabled Arctic seaway PHOTOGRAPH BY
bridging the Atlantic R E N A N OZT U R K
D I S KO BAY, Five weeks into the breath. “Launching the
112-day journey of the drone from a moving
GREENLAND
National Geographic boat is always a danger-
expedition ship Polar ous and exciting affair,”
Sun, photographer he recalls. “It was truly
Renan Ozturk found a once-in-a-lifetime
SEARCHING himself exploring a

bay off the coast of
experience to shoot
such a feature.”
THE SEAS Greenland. The boat

played peekaboo with •
pale blue icebergs as
Ozturk readied his cam- PHOTOGRAPH BY
era drone and held his R E N A N OZT U R K
C A N A RY I S L A N D S ,
S PA I N
BRAVING
THE
INFERNO
•
PHOTOGRAPH BY
A RT U R O R O D R Í G U E Z
Wearing a protective
suit, Armando Salazar
steps carefully across
sizzling rock, carrying
a chunk of glowing
lava on a pitchfork.
It’s just another day
on the job for Salazar,
an emergency special-
ist in the Spanish
military, as he collects
samples during a 2021
eruption at La Palma’s
Cumbre Vieja volcanic
ridge. Scientists and
others also ventured
across fresh flows
to monitor gases,
record earthquakes,
and more, hoping to
better understand
the event, which lasted
for almost 86 days.
Their findings can help
them determine Cum-
bre Vieja’s potential
for future blasts.
I N S TAG R A M
FROM OUR PHOTOGRAPHERS SINCE LAUNCHING in 2011, National

G e o g r a p h i c ’s m a i n I n s t a g r a m
FOLLOWER account—@natgeo—has been a cre-

ative collaboration of more than a
hundred photographers. Posting only
when they capture a remarkable sight,
FAVORITES these storytellers have been delighting

audiences with authentic scenes of the
world and all that’s in it. The feed, now
with over 230 million followers and
counting, offers not only compelling
images but often behind-the-scenes
details on the subjects, why they matter,
and what went into documenting them.
Here are five photos that resonated
strongly with viewers this past year.
@ N ATG E O •
MATTAWA , WASHINGTON KALAHARI DESERT, DEN HELDER,

Erika Larsen SOUTH AFRICA NETHERLANDS
@erikalarsen888 Keith Ladzinski Muhammed Muheisen
@ladzinski @mmuheisen
While working on a story
about Native American Here, heat and drought From the cockpit of a
cultures’ connection to “threaten a delicate balance Cessna Skyhawk, Muheisen
horses, Larsen met Des- of life,” says Ladzinski—life captured a colorful carpet
tiny Buck, a member of the that includes populations of of blooms in the tulip
Wanapum tribe, in Oregon. inquisitive meerkats. capital of the world.
Months later, Larsen pho-
tographed Buck at home DUJIANGYAN PANDA HUMBOLDT COUNTY,
in Washington, where she BASE , CHINA CALIFORNIA
stood “poised and proud,”
Larsen recalls. Each fabric, Ami Vitale Dan Winters
color, and artifact on Buck @amivitale @danwintersphoto
and her horse has meaning. Vitale showcased these six- For International Day of
Her cultural identity, Buck month-old cubs snacking Forests, Winters honored
explained, is rooted in the and playing as part of her Julia Butterfly Hill, who once
ways she honors her ances- long-term focus on giant spent 738 days in a redwood
tors and their customs. panda conservation. to protest logging.

MONUMENT Quannah Rose Chas- stands in front of and traditions aren’t
inghorse, a model and West Mitten Butte, in recognized the way
VALLEY, ARIZONA
activist who advocates Tse’Bii’Ndzisgaii (Mon- they should be.
for concerns of Indige- ument Valley), a park We carry so much
nous peoples, raises her that the Diné (Navajo) knowledge, strength,
fist to honor “the resis- administer. A Hän and power, not just
RAISING tance and fight of my
ancestors who survived
Gwich’in and Sičangu/
Oglala Lakota born on
trauma and pain.”
VOICES genocide and have Diné land in Arizona, •

persevered.” Thanks to she feels strongly that
them, she says, “we are “our voices, experi- PHOTOGRAPH BY
still here.” Chasinghorse ences, stories, cultures, K I L I I I Y Ü YA N
OUR TRIPS ARE
THE POLAR OPPOSITE
O F O R D I N A RY
Join National Geographic at the ends of the Earth on an expedition cruise to the Arctic
or Antarctica. Traveling with a team of experts, naturalists, and photographers,
get up close to the wonders of the polar regions, kayaking amid spectacular icebergs
and observing polar bears or playful penguins. Whether you seek out the northern lights
or the wildlife-rich beaches of South Georgia, we can’t wait to welcome you on board.
Our 2024 voyages are now open for booking. Visit our website to learn more.
N ATG E O E X P E D I T I O N S .C O M | 1 - 8 8 8 -3 51 -3 274
Architect. Mentor. Beekeeper.
A life well planned allows you to
While you may not be running an architectural firm, tending hives of honeybees and mentoring a
teenager — your life is just as unique. Backed by sophisticated resources and a team of specialists
in every field, a Raymond James financial advisor can help you plan for the dreams you have, the
way you care for those you love and how you choose to give back. So you can live your life.
I GIFT GIVING MADE EASY
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12.

PICTURES YEAR of the

Getting you Holiday Ready

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THE VISUAL FIELD

Y ing to explore the world in

Viktor, a 39-year-old male

STEFANIE ARNDT BALAZS GARDI

personal stories in Asia and Mexico, Green is an outdoor

4 • PICTURES OF THE YEAR

GLEB He is based in Innsbruck,

P- S former Soviet Union, Ray-

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When cracks opened

PICTURES OF THE YEAR • 13

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Camp Adventure Sea of

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K Panda Base China P A C I F I C

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PICTURES OF THE YEAR • 15

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Then my kayak takes off like a O U T S TA N D I N G This is where my hope lives.

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AV E R A G E N O . C O P I E S E A C H I S S U E SINGLE ISSUE NEAREST

A. TOTAL COPIES PRINTED OCT 2021 - SEPT 2022 SEPTEMBER 2022

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allowed for making photographs.

With winged arms in

Explorer Ernest Henry nearly 10,000 feet

PICTURES OF THE YEAR • 37

water’s edge, on the

40 • PICTURES OF THE YEAR

PICTURES OF THE YEAR • 41

surface of the spring-fed Florida about, manatees. Crowds of fans

W Gena Steffens and

42 • PICTURES OF THE YEAR

GENA STEFFENS (TOP) PICTURES OF THE YEAR • 43

ON THE background is the res-

ROAD TO 984-foot-high Nurek

MORE est dam on the planet,

ENERGY plant on the Vakhsh

To create this image

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