Photo Ark: Photographs by Joel Sartore

With ingenuity and wit, National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore has captured portraits of more than 5,000 creatures to date. Many of the animals live in the world’s zoos and aquariums, institutions dedicated to preserving and caring for species of all kinds. This exhibition features many iconic images and allows visitors to follow Sartore around the world on this exciting and important project.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.

Whether or not you go, you may enjoy this book of photography representing National Geographic's Photo Ark, a lifelong project by photographer Joel Sartore to make portraits of the world's animals, including those that are endangered.

  Whether you go or not, National Geographic The Photo Ark: One Man's Quest to Document the World's Animals 
 represents a major cross-platform initiative and lifelong project by photographer Joel Sartore to make portraits of the world's animals—especially those that are endangered. His powerful message, conveyed with humor, compassion, and art: to know these animals is to save them.

Sartore intends to photograph every animal in captivity in the world. He is circling the globe, visiting zoos and wildlife rescue centers to create studio portraits of 12,000 species, with an emphasis on those facing extinction. He has photographed more than 6,000 already and now, thanks to a multi-year partnership with National Geographic, he may reach his goal. This book showcases his animal portraits: from tiny to mammoth, from the Florida grasshopper sparrow to the greater one-horned rhinoceros. Paired with the eloquent prose of veteran wildlife writer Douglas Chadwick, this book presents a thought-provoking argument for saving all the species of our planet.