Joel Sartore was raised in Ralston, Nebraska, and graduated from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, with a degree in journalism. During his decades-long photography career and his mission “to show a world worth saving,” he has documented endangered species and landscapes all over the planet.

Sartore is longtime contract photographer for National Geographic. His work has also been published in Audubon magazine, the New York Times, Life, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, and numerous books. Sartore is a regular contributor to Sunday Morning on CBS and has also appeared on other network news programs and National Geographic’s Explorer, NPR’s Weekend Edition and Fresh Air, and in a PBS documentary, At Close Range. His television series Rare: Creatures of the Photo Ark has aired on both PBS and NatGeo Wild. He even appeared as himself on a 2021 episode of General Hospital.

In 2006, Sartore founded The Photo Ark, an ongoing effort through which he has created portraits of more than 12,000 species. Sartore is also a dynamic public speaker, author, teacher, and conservationist. He is a Senior Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers, a National Geographic Fellow, and has been recognized with awards such as the Rolex National Geographic Explorer of the Year award and the National Museum of Wildlife Art’s Rungius Medal.

His first U.S. Postal Service® project is Endangered Species (2023).

Sartore is always happy to return to home base from his travels around the world. He lives in Lincoln, Nebraska with his wife Kathy.

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