Frans Lanting and Art Wolfe are joining forces for a rare joint appearance March 22 & 23, 2020, in San Francisco. The occasion is OPTIC West, an event sponsored by B&H Photo and Video. We invite you to join them for a presentation of their work and the ideas behind it. OPTIC West will also feature presentations, technical sessions and field trips led by other photographers.

This is a free event, but only a limited number of tickets are available on a first come, first served, basis. Please see the link below. If you can’t attend in person, the event will be streamed live, worldwide. Stay tuned, we will share more details about OPTIC West and the live stream of the event as they become available here on this very page. Please check back soon. 

Check here for tickets and more information:  www.eventbrite.com/e/optic-west-tickets-95506495499

The February issue of BBC Wildlife features a cover story illustrated with my photos about the plight of the highly endangered Asiatic Cheetah and the political issues that caused a group of Iranian conservationists to get arrested with wrongful accusations of using their camera traps for spying.

I’ve shared images and stories about this tragedy before, on my social media accounts. Please follow us on Instagram @FransLanting and @ChristineEckstrom to stay engaged.

For more information on the situation involving the conservationists, check out these links:

I felt heartbroken after hearing of Martin Nicoll’s passing. I respected him as a scientist, I appreciated him as an activist and I cherished him as a friend.

Martin Nicoll in 2017

When I first met him in Madagascar in 1985, he was a barn stormer studying tenrecs in the forests of Andasibe. He kept a number of them for research in his hotel room in the old Hotel de la Gare. Martin opened my eyes and my mind to the wonders of tenrecs. I was on assignment for National Geographic and I ended up booking a room in the same hotel down the hallway from his.

Martin Nicoll in Andasibe, 1985

One of the photos I made of him holding a tenrec made it into the story Nat Geo published in 1987, which introduced so many people to Madagascar’s amazing nature. There were few visitors in Andasibe back then and Martin and I bonded over dinners in that chilly hotel. He became a trusted friend, who helped me understand the complexities of Madagascar far beyond the world of tenrecs, no matter whether they involved people or animals.

Martin Nicoll with tenrec, 1985

When I last met him in Antananarivo in 2017, he had become a grey beard, just like me, and he appeared sobered by the many setbacks he had experienced in the conservation causes he had fought for. But it did not take long for his eyes to light up when I asked him what deserved to get documented now in Madagascar. We ended up doing what we had done often before. We pulled out one of those gorgeous regional maps of Madagascar that shows off its intricate geography and we began to circle places and make plans. I’m treasuring that map now more than ever, but the circles will have to get defined with the help of others.

Martin Nicoll with Frans Lanting, 2017

In the conservation community our thoughts are often focused on the imminent loss of biodiversity we care so much about. It takes the passing of a person of Martin’s stature to make us realize that the facts and figures we know so well  become more meaningful when someone can connect the dots like he could. His knowledge was hard won, his commitment was life long and now he has become an ancestor. And it is up to all of us to carry on and make some of those circles part of his legacy.

WWF-Madagascar organized a tribute for Martin Nicoll, where you can learn more about his life and his work. https://tributetomartin.natiora.mg/

The photo above shows the teamwork that is required in the field. I am thankful to my friends in Iran for their help and devastated that two of the people shown in this photo have been in jail for more than a year now, accused of using camera traps for espionage: One of them may face the death penalty.

But camera traps are not spy tools. Houman Jowkar and Amirhossein Khaleghi Hamidi worked with the government, not against it, and local rangers worked with them in the field. They were not operating in secret. They are patriots dedicated to saving one of Iran’s most powerful natural symbols from extinction. Yet they are on trial now along with six of their colleagues shown together in the photo below.

Please spread word about this injustice by sharing this article and sign the Care2 petition by clicking on this link: https://www.thepetitionsite.com/626/639/055/conservationists-face-death-penalty-in-iran/

If you repost this message on Instagram, here are some handles and hashtags to use:

@hrouhani @jzarif_ir @hope4nature #ConservationIsNotaCrime #Free_Iran_Conservationists #anyhopefornature #hope4nature⁩⁩ #ConservationNeedsCameratraps