Joel Sartore is an American photographer known for his National Geographic magazine assignments.

Background

Sartore was born in Oklahoma but grew up in Ralston, Nebraska. His interest in photography started late in high school. He has a degree in journalism from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He changed his major several times before he settled on photojournalism. He took a wide range of courses including astronomy and bee-keeping.

Before working at the Wichita Eagle, Sartore worked at a gas station, a tropical fish store, ran a lawn care business and worked at the Daily Nebraskan

Daily Nebraskan

The Daily Nebraskan, established in 1871 as the Monthly Hesperian Student, is the student newspaper of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Although many journalism students work there, the Daily Nebraskan is independent of the University's College of Journalism and Mass Communications. The...

 (UNL's school paper.)

Sartore has a wife named Kathy and three children. Kathy is a cancer survivor and her husband wrote about how her cancer has been a blessing-in-disguise for him.

Joel Sartore is a founding Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers

International League of Conservation Photographers

The International League of Conservation Photographers is a nonprofit organization dedicated to furthering environmental and cultural conservation through ethical photography...

 (ILCP)

Joel Sartore has written several books. His most recent is a book entitled Rare: Photographs of America's Endangered Species.

National Geographic works

Issue	Article	Cover story?
July 1992	America's Third Coast Gulf Coast of the United States The Gulf Coast of the United States, sometimes referred to as the Gulf South, South Coast, or 3rd Coast, comprises the coasts of American states that are on the Gulf of Mexico, which includes Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida and are known as the Gulf States...	NO
November 1992	Eagle Recovery Bald Eagle The Bald Eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. It is the national bird and symbol of the United States of America. This sea eagle has two known sub-species and forms a species pair with the White-tailed Eagle...	NO
April 1993	Andrew Aftermath Hurricane Andrew Hurricane Andrew was the third Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the United States, after the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 and Hurricane Camille in 1969. Andrew was the first named storm and only major hurricane of the otherwise inactive 1992 Atlantic hurricane season...	YES
July 1993	Northern California Northern California Northern California is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The San Francisco Bay Area , and Sacramento as well as its metropolitan area are the main population centers...	NO
February 1994	Federal lands Federal lands Federal lands are lands in the United States for which ownership is claimed by the U.S. federal government.-Primary federal land holders:*Bureau of Land Management*United States Forest Service*United States Fish and Wildlife Service*National Park Service...	NO
February 1994	Connecticut Connecticut Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...	NO
July 1994	Boston Boston Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...	NO
March 1995	Endangered Species Act Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act of 1973 is one of the dozens of United States environmental laws passed in the 1970s. Signed into law by President Richard Nixon on December 28, 1973, it was designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and...	YES
January 1996	Utah Utah Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...	NO
February 1996	Tex-Mex Border	NO
October 1996	National Wildlife Refuge National Wildlife Refuge National Wildlife Refuge is a designation for certain protected areas of the United States managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The National Wildlife Refuge System is the world's premiere system of public lands and waters set aside to conserve America's fish, wildlife and plants...	NO
May 1998	Gray wolf Gray Wolf The gray wolf , also known as the wolf, is the largest extant wild member of the Canidae family...	NO
November 1998	Nebraska Nebraska Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....	NO
March 2000	Madidi Madidi Madidi is a national park in the upper Amazon river basin in Bolivia. Established in 1995, it has an area of 18,958 square kilometres, and along with nearby protected areas Manuripi-Heath, Apolobamba, and the Manu Biosphere Reserve...	YES
March 2000	Bugging Out	NO
May 2001	Prairie restoration Prairie Restoration Prairie restoration is an ecologically friendly way to restore some of the prairie land that was lost to industry, farming and commerce. For example, the U.S...	NO
July 2001	Grizzly bear Grizzly Bear The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...	YES
March 2002	Attwater's Prairie Chicken Attwater's Prairie Chicken Attwater's Prairie Chicken is a highly endangered subspecies of the Greater Prairie Chicken that is native to coastal Texas and Louisiana in the United States.-Description:...	NO
February 2003	Clayoquot Sound Clayoquot Sound Clayoquot Sound is located on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It is bordered by the Esowista Peninsula to the south, and the Hesquiaht Peninsula to the North. It is a body of water with many inlets and islands. Major inlets include Sydney Inlet,...	NO
July 2003	One Day, Three Peaks National Three Peaks Challenge The National Three Peaks Challenge is a mountain-endurance challenge in Great Britain, with a history of over 40 years, in which participants attempt to climb the highest peaks of each of the island's three countries...	NO
August 2003	Atacama Desert Atacama Desert The Atacama Desert is a plateau in South America, covering a strip of land on the Pacific coast, west of the Andes mountains. It is, according to NASA, National Geographic and many other publications, the driest desert in the world...	NO
July 2005	Drilling the West	NO
August 2005	Brazil's Wild Wet Pantanal Pantanal The Pantanal is a tropical wetland and one of the world's largest wetland of any kind. Most of it lies within the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul, but it extends into Mato Grosso and portions of Bolivia and Paraguay, sprawling over an area estimated at between and...	NO
May 2006	Selling Alaska's Frontier Alaska North Slope The Alaska North Slope is the region of the U.S. state of Alaska located on the northern slope of the Brooks Range along the coast of two marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean, the Chukchi Sea being on the western side of Point Barrow, and the Beaufort Sea on the eastern.The region contains the...	YES
December 2006	Ivory-billed woodpecker Ivory-billed Woodpecker The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is or was one of the largest woodpeckers in the world, at roughly 20 inches in length and 30 inches in wingspan. It was native to the virgin forests of the southeastern United States...	NO
August 2008	Monkey Island Bioko Bioko is an island 32 km off the west coast of Africa, specifically Cameroon, in the Gulf of Guinea. It is the northernmost part of Equatorial Guinea with a population of 124,000 and an area of . It is volcanic with its highest peak the Pico Basile at .-Geography:Bioko has a total area of...	NO
January 2009	Last One United States Fish and Wildlife Service list of endangered species This list contains only the bird and mammal species described as endangered by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. It contains species not only in the U.S. and its territories, but also species only found abroad. It does not contain fish, amphibians, reptiles, plants, or invertebrates,...	NO
April 2009	Vanishing Amphibians Decline in amphibian populations Dramatic declines in amphibian populations, including population crashes and mass localized extinctions, have been noted since the 1980s from locations all over the world...	NO
July 2009	State Fair State fair A state fair is a competitive and recreational gathering of a U.S. state's population. It is a larger version of a county fair, often including only exhibits or competitors that have won in their categories at the more-local county fairs....	NO
April 2010	Silent Streams	NO
October 2010	Gulf Oil Spill Deepwater Horizon oil spill The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which flowed unabated for three months in 2010, and continues to leak fresh oil. It is the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry...	YES
November 2010	Mystery of Great Migrations Animal migration Animal migration is the relatively long-distance movement of individuals, usually on a seasonal basis. It is a ubiquitous phenomenon, found in all major animal groups, including birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and crustaceans. The trigger for the migration may be local...	NO

Selected Works

• The Company We Keep: America's Endangered Species, 1995, National Geographic Society (1997 reprint), ISBN 0-7992-3310-7, with Douglas H. Chadwick
• Nebraska: Under a Big Red Sky, 1999, Nebraska Book Company (2006 Reprint, University of Nebraska Press), ISBN 0-9648-9926-4
• Photographing Your Family, 2008, National Geographic, ISBN 1-4262-0218-0, with John Healey
• Rare: Portraits of America's Endangered Species, 2010, Focal Point (National Geographic), ISBN 1-4262-0575-9
• Let's Be Reasonable, 2011, University of Nebraska Press, ISBN 0-8032-3506-2

External links

• Joel Sartore Photography
• At Close Range with National Geographic: Who is Joel Sartore?-PBS