‘Greatest Wildlife Photographs’ explores nature, innovation

A brand new nature-centered exhibit is opening on the Momentary. Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis attended a particular preview final week. He brings us this report.

Wildlife is middle stage on the Momentary by means of June 7, 2026. While exploring the brand new exhibit titled “The Greatest Wildlife Photographs,” guests can look at the historical past of nature images by means of a few of National Geographic’s most impactful photos.

However, as curator Alejo Benedetti says, the exhibit is extra than simply fairly footage. It’s an exploration of how National Geographic photographers have innovated their craft in pursuit of those photos, and moreover, how humanity interacts with the pure world.

The tour started with a cease on the journal’s first printed photos. They depict white-tailed deer bounding by means of some darkish forest. Their leaping kinds are captured by a lure digicam, an early invention of photographer George Shiras.

“And it was photographs that he had done at night, and it was using a new technique that people weren’t using. And so it was like with this flash bulbs with a series of tripwires, and he was going out in the middle of the night, and he would capture photographs of animals doing what they do at night. And this at the time was a wild thing, because we didn’t know, or at least certainly if we knew, we didn’t have any sort of proof of it. We didn’t have any sort of photo evidence of it. And so this was a wild thing. This is a technological advancement that he was able to pioneer and try out and put into action.”

Until the October 1906 difficulty, Nat Geo had been {a magazine} with no footage. The publication featured essays and analysis for a largely tutorial viewers. These early pictures set the journal on a path towards the enduring images it’s recognized for at the moment.

But National Geographic is extra than simply its photos. Words all the time run alongside these footage, within the journal and at The Momentary. They clarify their topics and the lengths the photographers went to seize them.

Benedetti gestures towards an image of a panda posing sassily in middle body.

“So a great example of that is with this. Amy Vitale did this— had really wanted to get a photo of a giant panda. This was a big goal of hers, but you can’t just wander into the forest and set up with a camera and hope that you can snap a photo of a giant panda. Instead, she got a big panda costume. Put it on. But it was a big panda costume that was soaked in panda urine. And for three days she sat out in the forest, waiting. Just waiting. No pandas. Until up walks this panda. It sits down. It does its little pose. She’s able to snap the picture, and then it wanders back on. And so these are the sort of things that when we see these photos and we think, ‘Ugh, glamorous. Beautiful photos. Like this must be— what a sweet gig to get if you can be a National Geographic photographer.’ It is a sweet gig, but also it’s not always glamorous. Sometimes it’s like a giant panda costume soaked in panda urine.”

Giant pandas may be harmful creatures. But as one will be taught whereas strolling by means of the exhibit, Nat Geo photographers often face hazard in pursuit of the very best shot. Though, the potential risk isn’t all the time large.

“Mark Moffett is this very well known photographer who typically photographed bugs, but his big thing is that he is interested in the sort of small world that’s always hiding in plain sight that we don’t always see. And he’s very good at being able to bring our focus down and get it into a space that we aren’t typically looking, that we typically are just walking past or walking over.

“In this case, he goes down to Colombia. He wants to get a photograph of this golden poison frog. But the problem with this frog is that it’s very poisonous. And so if you even touch it, then there are going to be some issues. And so he devised a plan. And so he wants to get this great close shot. So he has his assistant wrap him in plastic, like all the way down with his hands out here so that he can take the photo. And then he said, ‘My assistant was this big dude. And so we would have him lower me down, and then I would get up close. I’d get the picture. And as the frog would continue to kind of jump towards me, he would just pull me back.’”

Storytelling is on the core of National Geographic, Crystal Bridges and The Momentary. They all use hanging visuals to interrupt us down, enabling us to contemplate how what we’re seeing obtained in entrance of our eyes.

And like most tales, those Nat Geo tells should not stagnant. The pure world is all the time in movement, and some photos in “The Greatest Wildlife Photographs” depict that motion.

“This is a charging elephant. This is a photograph that was taken by Michael Nichols. And it was specifically he wanted to photograph a charging elephant. And he goes, he finds a spot. It’s a perfect spot where he knows that these elephants are coming through. And he also has identified one tree that he could easily climb back up in an effort to get away from these elephants once they do start charging. So he was able to get two photographs before he felt like he had to sneak back away, climb back up into his tree and get to safety.

“But he goes and he goes to Africa and he’s taking this photograph. And it’s an important photograph. It becomes the cover of National Geographic. It’s part of a bigger story that they do about the elephants in this area. And that ends up inspiring USAID to go in and actually help fund setting up a reserve for these elephants.”

The story of how Nichols obtained that image, after which the influence it had on conservation, highlights an underlying theme behind the work on show.

“We as humans, as a society, we play an important role in the continuation of all of this, the continuation of these different species. And when we are impacting the world around us, we need to be doing it with cognizance, with an awareness that our actions have repercussions.

“And I think that the benefit of something like National Geographic in a show like this is that there are many ways that we could tell that message. There are many different ways that we could get into the conservation around it. But National Geographic has always brilliantly and beautifully been able to say, the reason why we need to preserve this is because it’s so incredible. The reason why we need to care about this is because we are always learning things. We don’t even know all the things that we could learn about the world around us.”

These photos additionally remind us how shut a few of these wild animals may be, and regardless of the way it could really feel, the truth that we’re inextricably linked to the pure world.

“You know, there’s a work in the show. It’s called Cougar P-22, which is not necessarily like the most glamorous title. But when you see this work, it is a work. It shows a cougar in the Hollywood Hills. The Hollywood sign is behind there. And I think that there’s this perception that when we talk about wildlife photography, that you have to go out to the far-flung reaches of the Earth. The reality is that wildlife is all around us. And we are in the Ozarks. There’s a lot of wildlife. It’s very present.

“And if you come to this show and you see this beauty and you get excited about these creatures that make up our world, they’re not so far away. Some of them, like, you’re not going to walk out and see a polar bear, but you might walk out and see an amazing bird. You might walk out and see a possum, which is actually a very cool thing to do. And I think there are ways that we can engage with the world around us on a very local level, even as we are seeing things that are pushing us to also think about a space or a species that’s existing halfway around the world.”

You can go to the Momentary to view “The Greatest Wildlife Photographs” freed from cost till June 7 subsequent 12 months.