Last month, the National Geographic Society held its annual Storytellers Summit in Washington, DC. This powerful and beautiful conference (think of it as the Oscars of visual storytelling) brought together influential photographers, writers, filmmakers, cartographers, and multimedia artists to celebrate the art of storytelling and its ability to connect communities and inspire change. The two-day event included presentations ranging from urban photography about human relationships with the natural world to a ten-year journey to film never-before-seen Antarctic whale gatherings. While not all presentations focused on climate change, nearly everyone mentioned it. The crisis is so ever-present that it is inescapable in stories from all over the globe. 

As part of The Climate Pledge’s collaboration with the National Geographic Society, we attended the summit and during the opening remarks, announced our next five National Geographic Explorers who will document the global climate crisis. They include:

• Lynsey Addario, a U.S. photojournalist, who will use photography, video, and archive to record experiences of climate migration.
• Pablo Albarenga, a Uruguayan visual storyteller, who will research Brazil’s food paradox through documentary photo stories about the country’s food production and its connection to climate change.
• Malin Fezehai, an Eritrean and Swedish photographer, filmmaker, and visual reporter, who will examine human adaptations to sea level rise by documenting the experiences of people permanently living on water.
• Gab Mejia, a Filipino conservation photographer, environmental storyteller, and engineer, who will dig deeper into the interconnected complexities of the Philippine forests by illuminating the lives of environmental forest defenders.
• Davide Monteleone, an Italian visual artist and researcher, who will focus on the geopolitical, social, and environmental implications of skyrocketing demand for critical minerals necessary to achieve renewable energy’s goals.
  

The Climate Pledge team had the pleasure of meeting this new cohort of National Geographic Explorers to learn more about their plans for their projects. Additionally, a few Explorers from our first year cohort, Ciril Jazbec, Luján Agusti, Asha Stuart, and Kiliii Yüyan, joined us to meet the new Explorers and take part in the event presentations.

Slovenian photographer and filmmaker Ciril Jazbec presented his work documenting inspiring attempts to fight climate change in mountain communities of the Andes, Alps, and Himalayas. “I choose to tell stories with a glimmer of hope,” he said on stage as he described the innovative ways these communities are using ancestral knowledge, like using native plants to filter out mineral toxins from glacial melt water.

Another year one cohort member, Nanai/Hèzhé (East Asian Indigenous) and Chinese-American photographer Kiliii Yüyan, was presented with the Society’s 2023 Eliza Scidmore Award for Outstanding Storytelling. With support from the National Geographic Society x The Climate Pledge collaboration, Kiliii is working on a project focused on successful Indigenous conservation efforts in five communities from the Greenland coastline to the coral reefs of Palau. We’ve highlighted Kiliii’s work so far here and here.

The summit was inspiring and enlightening, and we left full of gratitude for our collaboration with this brand and the talents of these storytellers to create powerful and meaningful messages through their work. Through visual storytelling, these National Geographic Explorers illuminate the challenges and, most importantly, highlight the solutions that give us hope for a more sustainable future.

Learn more about National Geographic Explorers program here.