Born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, and originally trained as a classical pianist, Garth Lenz left his music career in 1992 to dedicate his photography to conservation. He has photographed environmental, wilderness, and indigenous peoples' issues throughout Canada, the U.S., Chile, Ecuador, Borneo, and China. This work has led to assignments and publication in numerous books, newspapers, and magazines. These include International Wildlife, B.B.C. Wildlife Magazine, The Nature Conservancy Magazine, Time Magazine, The Guardian, The Guardian Weekly, The New York Times Sunday Edition, The Tokyo Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The Globe And Mail, Sierra Magazine, and many others. He was one of the lead photographers of the book "CLEARCUT, The Tragedy Of Industrial Forestry", as well as La Tragedia Del Bosque Chileno, dealing with the clear cutting of Chile's forests.

Lenz's work for many non-governmental organizations has appeared in numerous full-page ads in the New York Times, Conde Naste, The New Yorker, Travel And Leisure, and on billboards in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Germany, in addition to many reports on conservation issues, and in numerous posters.

Known as an outspoken advocate for the environment, Lenz has been invited to show his work to The European Parliament, Canadian Senate, major corporations and business leaders. He has given numerous public presentations throughout Canada, the U.S., Europe, and Japan, on issues of wilderness and environmental protection. In 1993 and 1994, Lenz made major tours of Europe, the U.S. and Japan, in order to build the international campaign for the conservation of British Columbia's temperate rainforests and Clayoquot Sound. During this same time, he helped develop the markets campaign to encourage corporate responsibility as a tool for forest protection and conservation. In this role he has given presentations to The New York Times, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph in Tokyo, major newspapers in London, GTE in Los Angeles, and many others.

Lenz's recent images from the boreal region of Canada have helped lead to significant victories and large new protected areas in the Northwest Territories, Quebec, and Ontario. His boreal images and work from the Alberta Tar Sands received major awards at the Prix de la Photographie Paris, and International Photography Awards in 2008. In 2008, he was also awarded the Fine Print award in the Center for Fine Art Photography's "Our Environment" exhibition for one of his Alberta Tar Sands aerial images.

Check out Garth's Blog Here!

On January 11, 2008, iLCP Fellow Dorothy Keeler completed a video entitled "End Aerial Wolf Hunting" and uploaded it to Current.com, the brainchild of Al Gore. Within a week, the video became the #1 Most Popular Viewer Created video on the website, and one of the top 10 videos on the entire website.

This explosive new video blasts the justification for Alaska's current aerial wolf hunting program and rallies voters to end it. Using testimony from Alaska Department of Fish & Game staff, a master hunting guide, and Board of Game members, this video exposes the fallacy behind former Governor Sarah Palin's claim that predator control is based on sound science. Declarations that the program is for the benefit of subsistence hunters are shattered with documentation showing that sport and trophy hunters take up to 73% of prey in areas where aerial wolf hunting has taken place.  End Aerial Wolf Hunting rallies support for H.R. 3663, legislation now being considered in the U.S. Congress which will close the loophole in the Federal Airborne Hunting Act that has been exploited to allow this practice to continue. Five years in the making, this video exposes the truth about the stranglehold the hunting lobby has on wildlife management in Alaska.

Both Dorothy and iLCP Fellow Leo Keeler's images are currently included in the 40 image photography exhibit, Irreplaceable Wildlife in a Warming World, now touring the United States and sponsored by Earthjustice, Conservation International, and the Noah Alliance.

iLCP Associate Bridget Besaw's 4-month-long salmon conservation photography project for Nature Conservancy magazine was featured in 2 articles in the magazine's Summer 2009 issue as well as online in a 9-part multimedia showcase.  Bridget covered the Conservancy's salmon conservation work in 5 Pacific Northwest states (AK, WA, OR, ID, CA) photographing and interviewing scientists, fishermen, ranchers and local conservationists. Bridget spent a year on the project as sole creator of all still photography, video, and audio assets and was co-executive producer of the project.  It's the first time TNC tackled multimedia - they really went for it as a team...photographer and NGO working together to produce a huge project on one of the organizations main initiatives.  Conservation projects from California to Alaska are stitching back together once-majestic salmon runs and restoring fish to rivers where they haven't been seen in years.  Watch the video!

iLCP Emerging Member Ian Shive will be publishing his first major book on August 1st.  The 224-page, hardcover coffee table book titled The National Parks: Our American Landscape will hit store shelves nationwide. National Parks have long been an inspiration to his photography. Ian spent the last 4-years photographing on assignment or just meandering through the woods documenting everything from the arctic slopes of Mt. McKinley in Alaska to the underwater world of Channel Islands National Park in his backyard in California.  Ian is donating proceeds from the sale of his book to the National Parks Conservation Association.  Also, WILD EXPOSURE with Ian Shive - a series that originated as a web promotional tool for Ian's upcoming book - "The National Parks: Our American Landscape"  will debut in August on the Emmy award-winning CURRENT TV, led by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. CURRENT reaches approximately 50 million households in diverse markets  from the United States to the UK. Ian is proud to be associated with the cutting-edge outlet and being enabled to continue to deliver nature, the message of conservation, and photography to a broader audience in unprecedented ways. Stay tuned to the blog for updates as well as specific air-times in the coming weeks.

iLCP Emerging Member Chris Linder is in Cherskiy, Siberia for the month of July documenting climate change scientists studying the effect of global warming on the arctic ecosystem. Science stories and blogs from the field will be posted to the Polaris Project website.  This week the story was picked up by the New York Times "Dot Earth" science blog, which has a post and  an audio sideshow featuring Chris' images. Following the expedition in Siberia, Chris will be crafting a 10-minute multimedia presentation to tell the story of the Siberian 'carbon bomb'.  Follow Chris on his website.








iLCP Emerging Member Iñaki Relanzon, just finished a project with the Tengmalm Owl in the Pyrenees mountains, Spain. This owl is common in North Europe, but endangered in South Europe.  He has been working for a year with the scientist who is managing this species, and the photos will be published not only in different magazines but also in educational issues and posters.

Also, Iñaki will be spending two weeks in the Masai Mara and Amboseli National Parks in Kenya, leading a photo workshop with a small group. The group will follow the great migration and the Mara river crossing and will spend time in the savannah with nightly slide shows and master classes in the lodges. More information in www.photosfera.com.

Lastly, the August issue of National Geographic Magazine will be publishing  one of Iñaki'sphotos of Madagascar. Iñaki was working in a remote rainforest in Madagasacar with the primatologist Erik Pattel and his team when he captured a wonderful image of the silky sifaka,  one of the most endangered primates in the world. Take a look at the online edition.

iLCP Fellow Daniel Beltrá is the winner of he Prince's Rainforest Project Award at the Sony World Photography Awards. Daniel continues his journey to photograph the last remaining large tracts of rainforest in the planet. His next stop: Indonesia. Daniel will be accompanied by ABC's Bob Woodruff, a producer and a cameraman. Together they will be producing  documentaries for a range of TV outlets, likely  including Planet Green, ABC's Good Morning America and World News Tonight. This media coverage will mostly focus on the Prince's Rainforests Project and  Daniel's recognition as the recipient of the Award.  To see some of the images he has created for this project visit the Photography Blog.

iLCP Fellow Frans Lanting's European exhibition of "LIFE: A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME," will be on display at the Differdange Museum in Luxembourg from July 1st until August 30th.  More information on The LIFE Project, including upcoming performances and exhibitions, may be found at www.lifethroughtime.com. In the United States, "JUNGLES," Frans Lanting's exhibit celebrating the splendor of tropical rainforests from the lowlands of the Congo to the cloud forests of the Andes, will be on display until August 30th at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wasau, Wisconsin,  For information about this exhibit please check www.lywam.org.

iLCP Fellows Art Wolfe, Tom Mangelsen, and David Doubilet have recently announced the launch of a virtual stock photography agency called WILD Photography (wildphotography.com) operating on the PhotoShelter platform.  As the stock agency landscape underwent fundamental changes and consolidation in recent years, iLCP Fellow Art Wolfe saw an opportunity. Art states "we'll soon be able to truly claim we have the richest and highest-quality image collection celebrating the wild world, searchable on one site. Our motto: Go to the Source." wildphotography.com.  Read the entire article by Art on Outdoor Photographer online.

iLCP Fellow Annie Griffiths Belt's exhibit on THE LAST STAND continues to travel.  This summer it will be featured at the Chautauqua Institution in New York.  The exhibit will then travel to Springs Preserve Botanical Garden in Las Vegas for the fall. 

Her book THE LAST STAND; AMERICA'S VIRGIN LANDS  takes readers from the tall grass prairies of Kansas to the Arctic tundra of Alaska to the deserts of the Southwest and bears passionate witness to the last wildernesses, reminding us why they must be preserved.








iLCP Fellow Christian Ziegler is featured in the August issue of National Geographic Magazine.  The story is titled "The Art of Deception." In the rainforest, camouflage is an advanced evolutionary process and one nature's best survival tricks.  Christian captures organism's fascinating ability to mimic their environments. How many frogs can you see in this picture?







Good news from iLCP Associate Tom Peschak - the site (Hanifaru) where he photographed the National Geographic manta story has just been proclaimed a marine protected area.  Check out the "feeding fenzy" video and read the blog.  Looks like the combined hard work of the local scientists, government, the  Save Our Seas Foundation and the photographs in National Geographic magazine have done the trick.  Read the "Feeding Frenzy" article published in  the July issue of National Geographic Magazine.  Tom is heading back out there in August to work on a environmentally focused guide book to Hanifaru's Mantas and Whale sharks and a poster series to encourage the tourists who will soon begin to visit the site to tread (swim, dive) lightly.

iLCP Fellow Brian Skerry just recently returned from Isla Holbox off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico where he photographed migrating whale sharks as the first installment of the Yucatan Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition (RAVE).  Brian spent 14 days exploring the waters around Holbox in search of whale sharks to photograph for the Yucatan RAVE. Brian also documented the surge in whale shark tourism and explored the potential impacts on the whale sharks behavior through his photographs. The photos will be used by iLCP and partner organizations, like Amigos de Sian Kaan, who facilitated this expedition, at the WILD9 Congress in November 2009 as well as in presentations to key Mexican decision makers to ensure the newly created Whale Shark Reserve is properly protected and that new approaches to whale shark tourism are generated.  Read more on the Yucatan RAVE!

iLCP Fellow Luciano Candisani was invited to participate on the Board of Planeta Sustentável, the main online portal for sustainability in the Brazilian media. This portal is hosted by Abril publisher, the largest publisher in Latin America. To mark his presence on the portal, Luciano wrote about his work with iLCP and RAVEs, especially in Bioko. Luciano states "this will be a great space to discuss iLCP's actions in Brazil." Read more about Luciano on Planeta Sustentavel online

 FLATHEAD RAVE in BRITISH COLUMBIA
Members of the iLCP are just returning from a RAVE in the Flathead River Valley area in the southeastern corner of British Columbia.   The Flathead River Valley, an area the B.C. government most values for its coal, timber and methane gas, is immediately adjacent to the world's oldest International Peace Park, the Glacier/Waterton, and it is one of the most important wildlife corridors in North America, especially for large carnivores, like grizzly bears, cougars and wolves. iLCP Fellows  Garth Lenz, Matthias Breiter, Roy Toft, Emerging Member Joe  Riis, Executive Director Cristina Mittermeier, Chief of Staff Justin Black and naturalist and photographer Michael Ready undertook a remarkable expedition from July 18-29th with the intention of drawing the world's attention to an area many people want protected as a national park. The hope is that the images of the area, which lies along the dramatic western edge of the Rocky Mountains, will convince the government of B.C.  to protect the region before proposed major resource projects go ahead.  At the end of June, Joe Riis was in the field on the border of Montana/BC trying to capture Wolverine shots with Doug Chadwick for the Flathead RAVE. This marked the beginning of the expedition!  Read the Flathead RAVE blog! Many thanks to our sponsors: The WILD Foundation, LightHawk, National Parks Conservation Association, Sierra Club, Wilburforce Foundation, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, AlpineAire Foods and special thanks to Harvey Locke who's passion for the Flathead has supported the idea behind this RAVE. Follow details of this RAVE on our website.

This month, the iLCP sent Fellow photographer and National Geographic contributing photographer Brian Skerry to Isla Holbox off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico to photograph the large agreggations of whale sharks that gather there as the first installment of the Yucatan Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition (RAVE). Brian spent 14 days exploring the waters around Holbox in search of whale sharks to photograph for the Yucatan RAVE. In addition to photographing the whale sharks, Brian also documented the surge in whale shark tourism and explored the potential  impacts to the whale sharks' behavior. The photos captured during the RAVE, which will extend into late October and will include the participation of many other iLCP photographres including Klaus Nigge, Pete Oxford, Christian Ziegler, Art Wolfe, Claudio Contreras and many others, will be used to ensure that the last wild places in the Yucatan Peninsula are taken into consideration as the region continues to develop. Special thanks to Amigos de Sian Ka'an for supporting this RAVE.

National Photography Contest in Mexico
Reforestamos Mexico would like to invite you to participate in their Centinelas del Tiempo - Majestic Trees of Mexico National Photography Contest.  Your job is to seek out and photograph the most outstanding trees in Mexico, the majestic trees of the country, the Sentinels of Time.  Some members of the jury are iLCP Fellow Patricio Robles Gil, Fulvio Eccardi (an Italian photographer who organized the El Triunfo RAVE and participated also in the Balandra RAVE) and iLCP Emerging Member Jaime Rojo (also Executive Director of Wild9). You must register before the 21st of August 2009 at 8:00 pm.  For more information on the contest and how to register, visit the website.

2nd Annual Ocean in Focus Conservation Photography Contest
SeaWeb's Marine Photobank and Project AWARE Foundation invite you to participate in the Ocean in Focus Conservation Photography Contest.  Submit your compelling photos that engage viewers in pressing marine issues and solutions that address the rapid decline of our ocean's health.  Contest opened on World Oceans Day (June 8) and runs through August 27, 2009.  To learn more about the attractive prize packages and for full contest details please visit the contest website.

Nature's Best: Conservation Photographer of the Year
The Conservation Photographer of the Year Award was created to recognize a special individual who has used his or her skills as a nature photographer to implement meaningful and measurable conservation efforts that inform and educate the public about environmental concerns and resolution opportunities. Nominations for this prestigious award are accepted each year as part of the Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards competition. Nominations may be made on behalf of photographers that you know whom may meet the criteria, or you may nominate yourself. The 2009 CPY Award nominations are due by August 15, 2009. Read more on the CPY Award Website. iLCP Fellow Florian Schulz was the winner of the 2008 CPY award.

Fotoweek DC 2009 Awards Competition

Wildlife documentary filmmaker, environmentalist and iLCP Associate photographer Sandesh Kadur will be presenting at the screening of "Mountains of the Monsoon" release by BBC Natural World this year. The screening will take place at 1:00pm on August 8th, 2009, at the  Baird Auditorium in the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, in Washington D.C.  Before and after the screening there will be presentation from, Kamal Bawa, a distinguished professor from University of Massachusetts, Cristina Mittermeier, executive director of iLCP,  as well as Sandesh Kadur. Click here to watch a trailer for the film. Click here for the invitation.

Join iLCP Fellow Robert Glenn Ketchum for an "Autumn Nature Photography Workshop" on August 28-30 and August 31-September 3, 2009. Now is the time to sign up for this world-class workshop held in spectacular Denali National Park/Camp Denali North Face Lodge in Alaska! It is said to be "an unparalleled Setting... An Uncommon Experience" Contact: Anne Beaulaurier anne@campdenali.com or 907 683 2290

Get a signed and numbered collector's edition copy of iLCP Fellow Robert Glenn Ketchum's Regarding The Land and help support the International League of Conservation Photographers, too. Limited to 125 copies, this special edition set arrives in a fine linen slipcase. Also included in the set is a digitally-mastered, 7.5x9.5-inch Fuji Crystal Archive print of one of Robert's classic images, Sun Dance. The only previous print run of Sun Dance, an edition of thirty-three 30x40-inch cibachrome prints, sold out in just two weeks, making this a rare opportunity to own a signed and numbered print of this important image. The price is $1,500 for the complete set, of which Robert will donate $250 to the iLCP. For more information, contact Robert's studio at (310) 472-3681, or by e-mail at peace2rth@mac.com. More information is available on Robert's website.

The all new Art for Conservation website is finally here! There are a lot of refinements from the old site, including a section of the gallery reserved for iLCP Fellows, Associates and Emerging Photographers. They also have been - and will continue to be - featuring news from iLCP as often as possible. And they're aggressively developing their AFC social networking.

Take a look at the iLCP Gallery!  Enjoy - and purchase - these beautiful images by the photographers of iLCP. Know that each purchase provides valuable funding for both conservation photographers and the causes they are supporting.

iLCP Fellow Norbert Rosing was chosen as the photographer of the week on the Wild Wonders of Europe website. See his photos and read there interview here.

Visit the Wild Wonders of Europe website to see the latest posts on their blog (now also available in Spanish).  Join one of their many communities or check out the new galleries of images.  You can also enter the photo competition, or place your vote!  The last day of each month is the deadline for each coming month's competition. Join Wild Wonders of Europe on FaceBook! Browse some 200 images on Flickr

Now you can enjoy the beauty of the great outdoors from the comfort of your laptop or desktop.  iLCP Fellows Jim Brandenburg and Art Wolfe both have nature themed images as part of iGoogle.

Jim has traveled the globe as a photographer with National Geographic Magazine for several decades. His extensive body of work has been published throughout the world and his photographs have won a multitude of national and international awards.  Download Jim's white wolves theme!

Art's career spans four decades, and focuses on the beauty and diversity of the Earth. He is the author of 60 books and the host of public television's 'Art Wolfe's Travels to the Edge.'  Download Art's eagle and landscape themes!

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