Chris Rainier

Chris Rainier is an American documentary photographer, filmmaker, and National Geographic Society Explorer, widely known for his work documenting endangered cultures and languages around the world. In the early 1980s, he served as the last photographic assistant to legendary photographer Ansel Adams, working alongside him to use fine-art photography as a tool for wilderness and national park conservation. Throughout the 1990s, Rainier worked as a war photographer for TIME Magazine and NPR, covering conflicts and crisis zones around the world including Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Iraq, and besieged Sarajevo during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. His photography has also been published in The New York Times, LIFE Magazine, and National Geographic and he has carried out projects for the United Nations, UNESCO, Amnesty International and the Smithsonian Institution. As a National Geographic Fellow, he co-founded the Enduring Voices project, dedicated to documenting endangered languages and directed the National Geographic All Roads Photography Program. He is also the founder and director of the Cultural Sanctuaries Foundation, a global organization dedicated to preserving biodiversity and traditional cultures. In recognition of his work on cultural preservation, he received the Lowell Thomas Award in 2002 and in 2014 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society in London. He has published six books, including Keepers of the Spirit, Ancient Marks, Cultures on the Edge, and MASK and his work is held in the permanent collections of museums such as the International Center of Photography in New York and the George Eastman House in Rochester.