Conservation's human face.

• Author: Meyer, Douglas
• Position: Americas !Ojo! - Brief Article

IN CELEBRATION OF its fiftieth anniversary, the Nature Conservancy asked twelve artists each to visit a place the organization has helped protect and then record a response to that place on film. The result, appropriately entitled In Response to Place, is an exhibition and book that captures the diverse styles of the featured photographers and the rich splendor of the natural world.

"I wanted to investigate new ways of thinking about how the camera could depict our relationships to the land, to beauty, and to nature in general," explained curator Andy Grundberg. "I wanted to be surprised by what [the artists] did, and I hoped they would be surprised as well."

Working with the Conservancy, Grundberg selected artists ranging from the expected, such as established landscape photographer Richard Misrach, to the unexpected, such as popular celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz and cutting-edge art photographer Hope Sandrow. The artists, in turn, each selected sites ranging from mountain to desert to coral reef.

Photographers Sally Mann and Fazal Sheikh both selected sites in Latin America, yet their work could not be more different. Mann, who is perhaps best known for her portraits of her children, chose to visit Mexico's largest remaining tract of tropical forest, the 1.8 million-acre Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. "I have a sweet spot in my heart for Mexico," explains Mann. "I wanted to come to Calakmul where good work is being done to protect this beautiful part of Mexico."

Calakmul is home to jaguar, puma, and howler monkeys, as well as temples, palaces, and pyramids. To capture this place where the natural world and the Maya world meet, Mann used an antique lens that produced photographs filled with washed-out colors and streaks of light. The pictures were her first color landscapes, and she expressed satisfaction with the final product. "I think I broke some new aesthetic ground. The pictures are like black-and-whites with a subtle watercolor wash. There's a golden fusion to them, conveying the vitality of the place. The sun is so important to the Maya, and it...