Remembering Sudan: A New Award-Winning Film

I am honored to launch my newest award-winning film Remembering Sudan, which documents the heartbreaking crisis facing the northern white rhinos.

The film highlights the important relationship between keepers like Zacharia Mutai at Ol Pejeta Conservancy and the creatures they have committed their lives to protecting. It also highlights the important work by the BioRescue Project to save the species from extinction.

Many of you have been following this story of the northern white rhino with me since I began it over 14 years ago. I hope that you will take time to watch the film and support the important conservation work of Ol Pejeta Conservancy. All ticket sales go to supporting Ol Pejeta, which cares for Najin and Fatu, the last two northern white rhinos on the planet.

Visit rememberingsudan.org or to watch today.

Thank you for joining me on this journey and for believing that we can fundamentally change the course we are currently on. These creatures remind us that the world is so beautiful in spite of all that breaks our hearts.

Thank you to Zacharia Mutai, Ol Pejeta, MediaStorm and Dane Henry for your beautiful collaboration.

The Lucies to Honor Ami Vitale

The Lucie Awards is the premiere annual event honoring the greatest achievements in photography. The photography community from around the globe pays tribute to the most outstanding people in the field. Each year, the Lucie Advisory Board nominates deserving individuals across a variety of categories. The goals of The Lucies are threefold: to honor master photographers, to discover and cultivate emerging photographic talent and to promote the appreciation of photography worldwide. Ami Vitale will be honored with the 2022 Humanitarian Award.

The Lucies will be held at Carnegie Hall on Oct. 25, 2022. Tickets are available at lucies.org.

Exceptional Alien: ‘Kenya reminds us of all the wonder and magic of this world.’

World-respected, Montana-based photographer Ami Vitale has captured extraordinary scenes in more than 100 countries. Yet there’s one place that remains at the top of her list when it comes to creative inspiration: Northern Kenya.

Since her first visit to the region in 2009, the Nikon Ambassador and National Geographic photographer has returned regularly to immerse herself in the stories of heartbreak, but more importantly, in the stories of hope. It’s through this hope-filled lens that Ami then shares her compelling imagery of Northern Kenya. Now, with a strong connection to the community and the many conservation organizations there, Ami finds herself returning time and again. We chat to Ami about her lens on the world, her favorite spots to marvel at all living things and her top Travel Gems to explore in Northern Kenya.

Read the full article in Exceptional Alien here.

PetaPixel: 10 Female Photographers You Should Know in 2022

There is no better time than the start of the year to explore talented photographers who all have the power to inspire others. Each one of them with a unique visual voice and creative approach, these are ten female photographers you should know and follow….

Ami Vitale is an American photographer and filmmaker who captures impactful wildlife and environmental stories to highlight conservation issues. Vitale has traveled the world to cover all aspects of humanity — from violence and conflicts to the endurance and strength of the human spirit — and has shifted her focus to wildlife and the environment in recent years. This change of direction was marked by photographing the transport and release of the world’s last white rhinos in 2009.

Vitale shoots for National Geographic, is a Nikon Ambassador, has been named as one of 50 Badass Women by Instyle Magazine, and has numerous other professional accolades, awards, titles, and other types of international recognition. However, it is Vitale’s enthusiasm and dedication to powerful storytelling that shines through.

Besides her educational work, Vitale is also a writer and has published a best-selling book, titled “Panda Love.” The book contains Vitale’s photographs taken in China, and documents the efforts to breed pandas and release them back into the wild.

See the article.

RollingStone: The Photographers Trying to Save Our Planet

Ami Vitale was a war and conflict reporter for almost a decade before she made the switch to capturing images of our planet in peril: “I had this profound realization that all these conflicts, horrors of the world were deeply connected to nature,” she tells Rolling Stone from her home in Montana. “You could look at almost every single one of them and realize it was all connected to resources — everything we need comes from nature.” She began photographing endangered species, like the Northern White Rhino, hoping to get others tapped into the urgency of the problem. “I started to find stories about not just what we’re doing to the planet, but answers, too,” she says. “You can continue to talk about the horrors of the world, shock people, but what were we going to do about it?”

One thing she could do, she decided, was to get this kind of work into everyone’s home — because if people could look at a stunning image of an important subject every day, it might inspire them. So, for the past four years, Vitale has been running print sales that benefit conservation nonprofits — raising, she says, nearly $3 million over four years through fundraising and selling artwork donated by herself and her peers. “The first time I did this was because the U.S. was going to reverse the ban on the elephant tusk trade,” she says. “I was so enraged and felt so hopeless that I launched a print sale to benefit an elephant sanctuary I’d been working with.” That raised $50,000 in a couple weeks, she says.

Now, officially registered as the nonprofit Vital Impacts, Vitale and her cofounder, journalist Eileen Mignoni, have assembled an impressive group of 100 photographers — including National Geographic cover photographers, celebrated fine artists, up-and-coming talents, and one Dr. Jane Goodall — to donate images in a sale that lasts through Dec. 31. Sixty percent of profits go to conservationist groups, while 40 percent goes directly to the photographer. “Even if people don’t buy images, I hope they get inspired by the artists,” Vitale says.

HereRolling Stone has gathered selection of images and their stories to perhaps inspire others to begin to care about these species that, as Vitale says, lived here for millions of years — but couldn’t outlive us.

CNN: World-famous photographers join forces to protect the environment

The final moments before the death of the last male northern white rhino, a 66-year-old elephant swimming in the ocean, and renowned primatologist Jane Goodall searching for chimpanzees in Tanzania in the early 1960s; these are all moments captured in a collection of powerful photographs that have been donated to raise funds for conservation projects. 

Works by 100 photographers from around the world will be sold until the end of the year by Vital Impacts, a non-profit that provides financial support to community-orientated conservation organizations and amplifies the work of photographers who are raising awareness of their efforts. Contributing is a who’s who of nature photography, including Paul Nicklen, Ami Vitale, Jimmy Chin, Chris Burkard, Nick Brandt, Beth Moon, Stephen Wilkes and Goodall herself. 

“Each image has a really profound story behind it,” said Vitale, an award-winning photographer and co-founder of Vital Impacts. “I worked really hard when I was curating this to make sure that these photographers are diverse, but the one thing they all share is this commitment to the planet. They’re using their art to help conservation.”

See the full article here.

Shaba: A New Film by Ami Vitale

I am so excited to share my new short film, Shaba, about the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary’s first matriarch elephant and the extraordinary bonds she formed with a herd of baby orphaned elephants and the people who rescued her.

Shaba arrived traumatized after poachers shot her mother dead. This is a story about learning to trust those that we fear. She teaches us about love and our connections to all of life around us.

Ticket to view Shaba online are $10 and are available at Vital Impacts All ticket sales will go directly to Vital Impacts, a new non-profit supporting grassroots organizations who are protecting people, wildlife and habitats.

Shaba has been selected as a finalist in THREE categories – Conservation Short Form, People & Nature Short Form and Our Human Planet Short Form – at the Jackson Wild Media Awards. Widely considered the most prestigious honor in natural history media, the Jackson Wild Media Awards celebrate excellence and innovation in science and nature storytelling. These are the Oscars of nature filmmaking.

It has also been selected as an Award Finalist in the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, held in New York, where it will be screened on October 20. And the short film will be featured in the upcoming Innsbruck Nature Film Festival in Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria from October 19 – 22, and at Docutah November 1 – 6 at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah.

Earlier in the year, Shaba won the LA Independent Women Film Awards and was an official selection of the EarthXFilm Festival, Walla Walla Movie Crush, the Toronto International Women Film Festival, the International Wildlife Film Festival and the Doclands Film Festival.

The fundraiser benefitting Reteti Elephant Sanctuary has ended. Together we were able to raise an astonishing $250,000 which will be used to buy milk, blankets and medicines to support the baby elephants and the people who have committed their lives to protecting them. Reteti Elephant Sanctuary is the first indigenous owned and run elephant sanctuary in Africa.

Thank you for caring and being a part of this journey!

Warmest regards,
Ami Vitale

Travel Tales by AFAR: Inside a Daring Giraffe Rescue in Kenya

A decade ago, a group of endangered Rothschild’s giraffes was relocated to a remote lakeside peninsula in Kenya. But in recent years, due to rising water levels, the peninsula became an island, trapping the giraffes. In 2020, a team of conservationists set up a daring rescue—one that wildlife photographer Ami Vitale traveled to document. This is her tale.

Listen here at AFAR , in Season 2, Episode 2

Overheard at National Geographic: Episode 5: Giraffes on a boat

It sounds like the start of a bad joke: How do you move eight giraffes—including a newborn calf—off an island in Africa’s Western Rift Valley? Answer: It isn’t easy, and it involves a boat, blindfolds, and earmuffs. We follow conservationist David O’Connor on an epic (and awkward) journey to save these endangered animals.

Listen to the podcast here.