All images © Joel Sartore.

When I heard about Joel Sartore’s new book, I thought it was a really interesting project.

When I saw this promo video for Joel Sartore’s new book, I thought “this is exactly what I want to do with my life. Period.”

When I ordered Joel Sartore’s new book, I couldn’t wait for it to come in.

When I first read Joel Sartore’s new book, I could not help but have that feeling you get when you watch a heart-wrenching scene in a movie and you do everything you can to hold back one of those big, hot tears that blurs your vision before it finally gets sucked back in.

I’m not kidding.

Entitled RARE: Portraits of America’s Endangered Species, this is more than just another picture coffee table book. It is a passionate plea to you, me, and the rest of the world to learn to remember our love of nature and to step up and do something about the species we are losing each an every year to extinction.

The project is fairly simple in concept, rather difficult in process, and absolutely beautiful in execution. The book features stunning images of America’s endangered species, both small and large, famous and unheard of. They are all on simple black or white backgrounds and, in this way, are given equal “screen time.” Sartore traveled to zoos around the country and worked with biologists to capture the emotions of these dying creatures–both plants and animals–and the results are phenomenal. Am I praising it too much? Impossible.

The layout of the book is simple and well-designed. The fonts and colors compliment the images well, and though priority is given to the images themselves, the text accompanying them is educational, heart-warming, and tear-jerking. Though you won’t remember the numbers, names, or locations of most of the animals (and plants!) in this book, you will come away with a newfound respect for them and ones like them.

The foreword by Sartore opens the book with a narrative about the photo session for Bryn the rabbit, one of the last two (elderly female) members of her species, both of whom died a few months later.

Our photo session was one of the last chances Bryn had to be noticed…the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit is now extinct, a passenger pigeon for the 21st century. To see the last of any species in a glass jar of museum preservative is an absolute outrage to me. To know that it will happen again is truly heartbreaking.

Yet while he is quite stern about how the extinction of our flora and fauna is mostly our own faults (which is quite true), he is encouraging as well.

Wouldn’t it be great to begin a national dialogue now about the importance of saving the wild places that remain and the species that live there? To do this, nature must become more than just a faint notion to the masses, something that we like in the abstract but consider irrelevant to our daily lives.

If that doesn’t scream “integrity” to you, I don’t know what would. Blending humor with knowledge and, of course, passion, Sartore is truly a voice for those species who are under constant threat of destruction.

California Condor

The introduction, by Verlyn Klinkenborg, is also moving. He gives a short yet informational (and easy to read) summary of the history and effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act–and discusses why it needs help and why it’s not enough. And he makes another important point: many people have never heard of, much less seen, these endangered creatures. Yes, they’ve seen polar bears. But have they seen the Higgins eye mussel? The Salt Creek tiger beetle? The Delhi Sands fly? No. And they wont care about them unless they feel a connection to them. And that, my friends, is precisely where Joel Sartore’s images come into play.

Being a biology major, I also enjoyed the fact that the scientific names of all of the species was included. Just thought I’d mention that. Joel has obviously done his research and knew his subjects well-enough to capture more than just an image–he captured their emotions.

The images are striking because they are so simple yet so powerful, and the animals are portrayed in very unique and new ways. His image of a bald eagle, for example, shows the back of the head rather than the eyes and beak. This is an image (along with many others) that we do not see every day. When I saw this one, I realized I’d never seen the back of an eagle’s head.

His image of a polar bear is not of the stereotypical pure white bear walking along an ice sheet with its cubs. It is of a dirty, grimy bear with foam at its mouth on a black background. Sartore obviously wanted to show these creatures in a new way in order to make people care. He wanted to make sure he showed the sides of these creatures that have never been seen by the majority of America. Maybe he was even betting on it.

This book is worth the money ($16 on Amazon, $24 on Sartore’s website (though I’ve read that these may come signed), and I contend that it is an essential buy if you are into nature, photography, animals, coffee-table books, or any combination thereof. My only criticism is that I wish it were larger.

Ocelot (Leopardis pardalis), a secretive species that is down to just a handful in the United States. Its population in Central and South American remains unknown.

We must realize there is more to life than the price at the pump and what’s on TV. Indeed, there’s nothing more important than what’s going on with the rest of creation. Healthy forests, marshes, and prairies keep our air and water clean. So when we save biodiversity, we’re actually saving ourselves. Now that’s something even a St. Andrew beach mouse could get excited about.

I’ve never been more attached to the purpose and images in a photography book than I am about this one. If you want to borrow mine, let me know. Buy it. Ask your library to carry it.

Most importantly, share it. That’s the only way these images are going to change anything. People have to see them. People have to love them. People have to remember them.

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That’s my review. Now here is my plea.

I hate you, Joel Sartore. I hate you because you have done what I have been wanting to do for years–most of my mature life–and you have done it so well that I may never get a chance to do it in such an impressive, unique, and groundbreaking way to truly make a difference in this world. (OK, I don’t really hate you.)

Yet I also love you. I love you because you are so incredibly dedicated to your work and you have done something selfless that will not just promote yourself, but will aid in the conservation of endangered species both in the United States and worldwide. You have taken a courageous stand for the preservation of biodiversity when the economy, energy, and much of America (the uneducated parts, at least) is against you.

That being said, Joel, if you’re out there and you feel like lending a helping hand, please feel free to do so. You know what I want to do with my career, because I want to do exactly what you’re doing. If you know people who could help me out, that would be great. If you want to critique my photos, go for it. I hadn’t realized what I wanted to do with my photography until I read this book, and now I am 100% sure. So, thank you for that. And thank you for whatever opportunities you may throw my way, be it on purpose or accidentally.

OK, so I don’t really hate you.

UPDATE: RARE now has its own website. Check it out.