This article is published in issue 2-3 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until 16 January 2024.
“Without animals we are nothing.” Joel Sartore, award-winning American photographer, founded The Photo Arka project in collaboration with the National Geographic to document and safeguard those in danger of extinction. From 2006 to today he has visited more than 700 zoos, traveled to over 60 countries, photographed 15,000 species (and plans to reach 20,000). Birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates and mammals, including the African Loxodonta, or savannah elephants.
You see them above, in a group at Queen Elizabeth National Park in Uganda. The shot is from 2012. Now, as then, there are 2,500 specimens in that slice of territory. This is good news for Uganda, much less good if you look at the total numbers in Africa: from around 10 million in 1930 they have fallen to 450,000, according to the most recent WWF estimates. Among the causes, the drastic reduction of the natural habitat (about 50 percent) and above all poaching. The ivory of tusks, the white gold of jihad, still has a market and helps finance the military operations of well-known terrorist groups.
Fortunately we can help African Loxodonta: this image by Joel Sartore along with many others, is on sale until January 31st on the website Vital Impacts. There are one hundred photographers, both established and emerging, who have joined the association's project, the purchase of one of their shots will go to support the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in Kenya, a protected area created in 2016 for the orphans of the largest terrestrial mammal. The Reteti is also an example of female empowerment, managed by indigenous people of the Samburu ethnic group. A revolution for Africa, even where it was thought that women could not work, today they contribute to reviving and enriching the surrounding communities. Girls can look forward to their literacy and fulfilling their dreams as they help raise elephants, which are vital to the ecosystem. Without this mammal, ponds for other species and various tree varieties also risk disappearing in a cascade. With a photo we can help the Elephant Sanctuary Reteti and with this the entire planet.
To subscribe to Vanity Fair, click here.
Source: Vanity Fair
I’m Susan Karen, a professional writer and editor at World Stock Market. I specialize in Entertainment news, writing stories that keep readers informed on all the latest developments in the industry. With over five years of experience in creating engaging content and copywriting for various media outlets, I have grown to become an invaluable asset to any team.
