This talk is part of the Vital Impacts Student Speaker Series, presented in collaboration with Changemaker Talent. These compelling talks blend storytelling with award-winning imagery to bring to life the biodiversity crisis and the people and programs working toward a sustainable future.
After two decades on the front lines of conflict, Ami Vitale asked herself whether she was telling the story or making it the story through documenting the same thing as everyone else. This, plus grappling with PTSD, led to her taking on a yearlong assignment for a nature organization, traveling the world, reporting on biodiversity, and documenting animals. Not only did it prove a balm to her soul, but it created an epiphany: We can’t solve our problems without taking nature into account. Be inspired by the hopeful and heartwarming stories she told next—about coexisting with and learning from wildlife.
AMI VITALE
A Nikon Ambassador and National Geographic photographer, writer, speaker, and documentary filmmaker, Ami Vitale has traveled to over 100 countries for her work. She is also the founder and executive director of nonprofit Vital Impacts, which supports organizations that are protecting people, wildlife, and habitats. Ami will be featured on the National Geographic Channel Explorer TV series in 2023. She was named one of 50 Badass Women by InStyle magazine and Magazine Photographer of the Year in the International Photographer of the Year prize. Ami has also received the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Reporting and is a six-time recipient of World Press Photo Awards. Her best-selling book, Panda Love, is about the secret lives of pandas.
The Makin Waves Song of the Week is "ICE SS" by the Central Jersey punk act Sally Draper.
