I heard “awe” called wonder’s cousin by Jill Tiefenthaler the CEO of the National Geographic Society. She also referred to it as an emotion that connects us to people and places, and as the “presence of something vast that challenges our understanding of the world.” It was a perfect descriptor for this week’s National Geographic Storytellers Summit here in Washington, D.C., where I sat in complete awe looking at amazing work made by wonderful human beings while being surrounded by equally incredible humans.
I want to use today’s newsletter to share some of that awe-inspiring work.
As always, Vince Musi was a terrific emcee.
Pragna Parsotam-Kok kicked things off by introducing us to musicians from the Compose Yourself Labs, African musicians who were brought together to score films and create the sounds often absent from footage and films about Africa. It was fascinating to see how they create emotion and tell a story through sound. They did it LIVE, while the footage was rolling on the screen behind them.
River Claure created a fantastical universe to explore his Bolivian identity.
Florence Goupil shared a project on how native corn is linked to people and place.
Katie Orlinsky has focused her lens on Alaska for some time now, and her latest story is on the Western Arctic Caribou herd.
Corey Arnold has the most insane images of urban bears, coyotes, and raccoons.
Indian wildlife filmmaker Gunjan Menon said she had a therapist who told her she was too empathetic. Then she realized that’s what allowed her to do the work she was doing, telling stories with heart. So she fired her therapist. Her work on red pandas and the woman trying to save them is proof she did the right thing.
Archivist Yazan Kopty shared his research project @imaginingtheholy which seeks to connect thousands of unpublished images from the National Geographic Society archive with Palestinian elders and cultural heritage experts to add new layers of narrative and knowledge to the collection.
Anastasia Taylor-Lind shared new work from Ukraine, a place she’s been documenting since 2014, as well as her poetry inspired by some of the imagery.
Photographer and activist Latoya Ruby Frazier thinks big. Her month- and year-long projects tell stories of systemic racism in the rustbelt.
Meklit Hadero is an Ethio-American vocalist and composer who has the most beautiful voice and is the co-founder, host, and co-producer of Movement, a new podcast and live show telling stories of music and migration.
Yagazie Emezi shared work from “Another Tale by Moonlight,” an artistic reimagination of European fairy tales that juxtaposes the historical, cultural, environmental, and contemporary socio-political realities of Nigeria.
Haruka Sakaguchi documents silence, beautifully. Both the 1945 project and Campu: An American Story are powerful and important bodies of work.
The husband and wife team of Emin Özmen and Cloé Kerhoas Özmen have been documenting a thousand-year-old valley in southeastern Turkey, now lost under the waters of the Ilısu Dam, as well as the displacement of people and culture.
Slovenian photographer Ciril Jazbec talked about his “dream to heal glaciers.”
Kiliii Yüyan was honored with the 2023 Eliza Scidmore Award.
Babak Tafreshi is an Iranian photographer, science journalist, and amateur astronomer whose images of the night sky are epic.
Johny Pitts questions what it means to be a Black European or Afropean. He created an online magazine of the same name.
Esther Horvath has done so much cool work in the Arctic.
and British wildlife filmmaker Bertie Gregory’s stories about and footage documenting a whale gathering were truly incredible. I mean, wow.
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With profound and sincere appreciation, Melissa Lyttle. "Awe" indeed!
Wow, thank you for sharing the work of these truly AWEsome image makers. It's especially pleasing to see native photographers getting such recognition. Speaking of awe, have you heard of The Humane Space? I did some work for them last year. Their CEO is a photographer and their mission is to inspire awe, wonder and curiosity. https://thehumane.space/