As Speakers, These Two Visual Storytellers Use Art and Words to Inspire Hope and Action
A 27 Year Wildflower Journey: The Making of Beauty and the Beast: California Wildflowers and Climate Change
It was a pleasure hosting Rob and Nita for "A 27-Year Wildflower Journey," their talk on wildflower photography and climate change. They drew a large audience eager for behind-the-scenes photography secrets and insights on the future of California's wildflowers. Peppering in anecdotes and pragmatic tips, they kept listeners engaged and uplifted, even while discussing climate change in our state. We are glad to continue working with Rob and Nita by showcasing their stunning photographs in our newest exhibit. ~ Judy Gradwohl, President and Chief Executive Officer of the San Diego Natural History Museum
International award-winning conservation photographers Rob Badger and Nita Winter provide informative, engaging illustrated presentations hosted by a variety of venues and groups throughout California. Virtual talks have allowed them to expand to a nationwide audience.
Rob and Nita are excited to take you behind the scenes on their 27-year journey photographing wildflowers throughout California and the West and the making of Beauty and the Beast: California Wildflowers and Climate Change. Beauty and the Beast is an educational traveling exhibit and a companion 12 time award-winning coffee table book. They introduce you to how they use their art and the voices of a diverse group of scientists, environmental leaders and nature writers to inspire hope and action regarding climate change, land conservation and species extinction.
Speaking Engagements:
Museums: San Diego Natural History Museum*, Grace Hudson Museum, Los Altos History Museum**
*Hosting California Blooming - Wildflowers and Climate Change in the Golden State (custom large print exhibit) at the San Diego Natural History Museum, April 2, 2021 thru 2022.
**Hosting traveling exhibit: Beauty and the Beast: California Wildflowers and Climate Change March 6 - July 11, 2021
Botanical Gardens: UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens, UC Santa Cruz Arboretum and Botanic Garden, San Francisco Botanical Gardens
Libraries: San Francisco Main Public Library, San Anselmo Library, Marin City Library, Redwood City Library
Bookstores: Book Passage, Sausalito Books by the Bay
Educational Institutions: Redland's Forum at Redlands University
Plant Groups: Montelindo Garden Club, Marin Garden Club, Pleasant Hill Plant Study Group, California Native Plant Society (CNPS) Chapters: Yerba Buena (San Francisco) 300 participants, San Diego, Marin, South Coast, North Coast, Mt Lassen, Milo Baker, East Bay CNPS Chapter
Photography Groups: Napa Valley Photographic Society, Marin Photography Club, Santa Rosa Photographic Society
Environmental Organizations: Theodore Payne Wild Flower Foundation, Daily Act, Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation
Film Festivals: A recording of A 27 Year Wildflower Journey presentation was offered during the 2020 Wild and Scenic Film Festival.
Bios:
Internationally acclaimed conservation photographers Rob Badger and Nita Winter have been life partners, activists and creative collaborators for more than three decades.
NBC-TV's OpenRoad interview with Doug McConnell
Rob’s environmental images have won multiple awards, including Best in Photojournalism in international competition. He was one of three American photographers chosen to document Russian nature preserves in Siberia. In 1998, he presented a slideshow documenting the impact of mining on our public lands at the National Press Club in Washington DC for the Sierra Club to support the Clinton administration’s efforts to reform the antiquated 1872 Mining Law.
Nita began her photographic career documenting her work fighting wildfires in northern California and later as a National Park Ranger on Alcatraz. In 1986, Nita had her first major exhibit, “The Children of the Tenderloin.” This documentary project launched her career and directed her focus toward creating healthy communities. The series received extensive media coverage and showed her first-hand the power of photographic storytelling. Over the next 17 years, she produced and created portraits for six major public art projects celebrating the Bay Area’s diverse communities.
In 1992 they joined forces to begin documenting wildflowers and their habitats throughout the West. They integrated art and science into their 12 time award-winning coffee-table book, Beauty and the Beast: California Wildflowers and Climate Change, co-published with the California Native Plant Society, to inspire hope and action. It is a companion to their traveling educational exhibit, seen by over 45,000 people throughout California, including the California Museum in Sacramento and a large print custom version in the San Diego Natural History Museum.
Their work has been featured in Time, Mother Jones, and Sierra magazines, the New York Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Times, PBS, ABC, CBS and NBC-TV. They are the recent recipients of the Sierra Club’s 2020 Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography.
Talk Description:
Rob Badger and Nita Winter take you behind the scenes on their 27-year journey photographing wildflowers throughout California and the West. It began in 1992 when they discovered and fell in love with California's spectacular wildflower blooms in the Mojave Desert's Antelope Valley California Poppy Preserve. Photographing these beautiful landscapes and individual flowers evolved into their documentary art project, Beauty and the Beast: Wildflowers and Climate Change. Their new beautiful multiple award winning coffee table book, co-published with CNPS, focuses on California’s amazing plant diversity and is a companion to their traveling exhibit.
Gorgeous scenery isn’t the only thing that makes the Beauty and the Beast wildflower photos so special. Rob and Nita developed unique field techniques to capture one-of-a-kind images. They create every one of the photographs in the field, lugging 80 pounds of cameras and their “natural light” studio equipment from below sea level in Death Valley National Park to 13,000-foot-high mountain passes.
Their new book’s collection includes Rob’s floral portrait techniques that go beyond any traditional approach. In the “Contact” series, the luminous flower petals actually touch the lens; in the “Wrapped” series, flowers are enfolded in black or white fabric to complement their geometric forms. Talks are often tailored to the type of audiences.
Upcoming Free Virtual and Live Author Talks
- March 4, 5:30 - 7:30 PM Live Opening Exhibit Reception and Talk, Jewish Community Center, San Francisco
- We are available. Do you know an organization hosting talks?
Past Free Virtual Author Talks (partial list)
- January 7, 2022 7:00 PM San Diego Sierra Club Chapter
- October 28, 2021 4:00 PM Parks California
- June 9 6:00 PM San Francisco Botanical Gardens
- April 27 11:00 AM UC Berkeley Botanical Gardens
- May 3 6:00 PM UC Santa Cruz Arboretum and Botanic Garden
- April 28 5:30 PM Theodore Payne Wild Flower Foundation
- May 27 6:30 PM Redwood City Library
- April 22 5:30 PM Redland's Forum, Redlands University Earth Day
- April 28 1:30 PM Marin Photography Club (members only)
- April 29 6:30 PM Santa Rosa Photographic Society
Sample Topics:
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