"I can still smell the dust, taste the dry earth in my mouth, and hear the movement of elephants through the bush. My skin is dry, the sun rests heavily on it as if God has tailored a suit and draped it over those who choose to stand under its rays. Elephants move through this landscape as if appearing on stage. The audience, made up of acacia and mopane trees, waits patiently for them to burst forth from behind curtains of dust, made solid by the same rays that I now stand dressed in.

Like small explosions, each footstep releases new sheets of fabric into the air, wrapping this landscape as if Christo himself has stepped forward from the bowels of the earth. The audience parts; in this it has no choice, allowing the herd to move forward as a body of one. Behind them the world moves in slow motion as the landscape recovers its composure; the audience dusts itself down, looks to each other, and then breaks into uniform applause. God turns down the lights and an entirely different performance begins as night falls and a new cast assembles on stage.

Sunset, Okavango delta panhandle, Botswana - from David Chancellor's recent National Geographic story ‘Elephant Politics’

David Chancellor is a multi award-winning documentary photographer. His work brings him across the world, from the sombre mountains of Scotland, to the tribal lands of Kenya and, more recently, the arid plains of Saudi Arabia. A regular contributor to National Geographic, he has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions, exhibited in major galleries and museums, and published worldwide. His work continues to examine mankind’s complex relationship with the natural world."

Follow David on Instagram @chancellordavid.

A mother and baby elephant walk along the grassland by sunset.

One of the first women photographers to work for National Geographic, Annie Griffiths has photographed in nearly 150 countries during her illustrious career. She has worked on dozens of magazine and book projects for National Geographic. Griffiths’ work has also appeared in LIFE, Geo, Smithsonian, Fortune, and Stern, among other publications.

Follow Annie on Instagram @anniegriffithsphotography.

15 year old Samburu girl Naltwasha LeRipe meets orphaned baby elephant Shaba at Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in Samburu’s Namunyak Wildlife Conservancy in northern Kenya, September 20, 2017. The girl and the elephant interacted naturally for just a few frames then the moment was gone.

It is the first time Naltwasha has been anywhere near this close to an elephant who are usually feared and chased away by the Samburu people as they try to protect their homesteads and livestock. 

Georgina Goodwin is a documentary photographer focusing on environment, women and social issues. Georgina is known for her award-winning work covering Kenya’s post-election violence, cancer in Kenya, Westgate terror attack, and refugees in Africa.

Follow Georgina on Instagram @ggkenya.

Vital Impacts is honored to have this photograph as part of our permanent, year-round collection.

This is Rajan. He is a 66-year-old Asian elephant brought to the Andaman Islands for logging in the 1950s. He and a small group of 10 elephants were forced to learn how to swim in the ocean to help bring the logged trees to nearby barges and then eventually swim onto the next island.

When logging became banned in 2002, Rajan was out of a job. He spent the rest of his days living out an idyllic elephant retirement on one of the islands he helped log. I photographed him and his Majout (caretaker) named Nazroo who had been together for 30yrs and documented Rajan spending time sunbathing on the beach, swimming in the ocean and foraging in the forest. Rajan was the last of the group to survive until his death in 2016. He was truly the last of his kind.

This image is from the artist series "The Last of His Kind”.

An award-winning photographer, Jody MacDonald is no stranger to adventure and exploration in the last untamed corners of the planet. 

Follow Jody MacDonald on Instagram @jodymacdonaldphoto

Elephant species have survived on the planet for 55 million years. Whereas our ancestors have walked the earth for only 6 million. You might say, elephants have every right to declare, “We were here first, we’ve learned a thing or two about survival, taking care of the planet, and getting along with others.” Elephants have similar social structures to humans and show clear signs of emotional intelligence.

Kathy Karn is an international award-winning photographer and visual storyteller. She shares her love of African wildlife in stories that entertain, educate, and support conservation in her blog Heartfelt Stories. Her images of elephants have appeared in articles, annual reports, and press releases for conservation organizations and publications such as The Sarara Foundation, Wildlife Direct, The Guardian and Africa Geographic. 

Follow Kathy on Instagram @kathykarnphotography. 

The first anniversary image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope displays star birth like it’s never been seen before, full of detailed, impressionistic texture.

The subject is the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth. It is a relatively small, quiet stellar nursery, but you’d never know it from Webb’s chaotic close-up. Jets bursting from young stars crisscross the image, impacting the surrounding interstellar gas and lighting up molecular hydrogen, shown in red. Some stars display the telltale shadow of a circumstellar disk, the makings of future planetary systems.

Photo by NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan (STScI)

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

Learn more here.

Trichomes are microscopic hair-like fuzz found on the leaves of sea buckthorn plants. When viewed under a microscope, these tiny, virtually translucent hairs refract light after being removed off a leaf with a razorblade.

Walter Machielsen is a photographer from Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Microscopy has many different aspects, including a connection with nature photography.

Orion Bar in the Orion Nebula.

This image taken by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows a part of the Orion Nebula known as the Orion Bar.

While observing the Orion Bar, Webb made the first detection ever of a crucial carbon molecule called methyl cation (pronounced cat-eye-on) in space. Carbon compounds are the foundation of life as we know it, and methyl cation (CH3+) plays an important role in forming more complex carbon-based molecules.

Within this region, Webb found methyl cation inside a planet-forming disk surrounding a young star system. The disk was bombarded with UV radiation from nearby young stars. While UV radiation is typically expected to destroy complex carbon molecules, the science team believes it may actually be the source of energy necessary for methyl cation — and with it, more complex carbon molecules — to form. Ultimately, understanding how UV radiation changes the chemistry of these disks could tell us more about the origins of life.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world's premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

Learn more here.