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#flashHeader{visibility:visible !important;}An exhibition celebrating the 125th anniversary of National Geographic magazine will open at the Annenberg Space for Photography Oct. 26 and run through April 27, 2014. The show is a modern response to the history of the magazine, with most of the 500 images displayed on digital screens. It was co-curated by Sarah Leen, National Geographic’s newly appointed director of photography, and her husband, Bill Marr, its creative director.
Ms. Leen spoke with James Estrin about the exhibition and her plans for the magazine. Their conversation has been edited.
Tell me about the exhibition at the Annenberg Space for Photography.
We did an exhibit with them a few years ago in 2010, when we did our special issue on water. That worked out really well, and they’re terrific to work with. Time passed, and we agreed to do an exhibit that celebrated the 125th anniversary of the magazine and all the great photography during that time.
I had been really worrying about how to do an exhibit in the Annenberg space. Depending on size, it could be 100 or so prints, but with our archives, it’s very easy to just end up doing all the iconic images. There’s pictures that you almost have to do. There’s quite a few that are beloved and really speak about who we are and what we’ve done. And then you’re done! Over 100. There’s so much more, and it was driving me crazy figuring how to make an edit of this.
Bill Marr and I were on a long one-day drive to Indianapolis and thought if we didn’t have the constraints of print, if we didn’t have to do a print exhibit, then the sky’s the limit. And so we started imagining an exhibit in which it’s much more on screens than on print.
You ended up with how many images?
It’s 500 plus 1. At a certain point, Chris Johns, the editor of the magazine, capped it at 500, because I was just going crazy, there was so much good material. And even now, all I can think of is all the good things I had to leave out.
You focused a lot on the more recent material. What will we know about National Geographic photography and photographers from this exhibit that we wouldn’t necessarily have known before?
Although there is a fair amount of archival material and old favorites that stand the test of time, I think what you’ll see is how much we’re covering relevant issues and contemporary topics. We’re still doing incredible natural history, science, exploration and archaeology, but we’re also doing geopolitical stories, whether it’s in Cairo or Gaza or Cuba â€" and in the U.S., like the teenage brain or fracking in North Dakota.
It’s not just the topics, it’s also the types of photographers and their vision. I think we’re using the best photographers in the world, especially in the world of photojournalism and social documentary. Also, we’re using incredible landscape photographers and fine-art photographers. So these visions, I think, also make the way we look at things feel fresh and relevant.
Martin Schoeller/AUGUST Image “I like building catalogs of faces that invite people to compare them,†says the photographer Martin Schoeller, who set out on a project to document America’s racial diversity. “When you compare 10, 20, 100 sets of eyes, you see how different they are.†Jordan Spencer, 18, of Grand Prairie, Tex., left, identifies as black and biracial; Celeste Seda, 26, of Brooklyn, identifies as Dominican and Korean.When I was growing up, I loved National Geographic, but it was mainly images of exotic people and animals and a certain type of photography. What National Geographic photography is has changed fairly substantially in the last 30 years.
I think so, especially in the last 20 or 25 years. And we still do those things. In this August issue, we have this amazing piece on the Serengeti lions by Nick Nichols, but I think if you look at the way it’s photographed, it feels very contemporary and fresh and sort of re-seen â€" the technology that he employs and the way he sees.
There are still plenty of things that we cull from our core topics, the environmental issues and nature and natural history. We still do exotic cultures, but it’s more about exotic cultures that are trying to live in the 21st century, or fighting environmental degradation or the loss of their language.
In May, you were promoted to director of photography for the magazine. What do you hope to accomplish in your new role?
Well, I’m managing the photo editor staff of the magazine and working a lot with all the freelance photographers. We also hired Keith Jenkins, who’s the director of photography for the Web. So he and I are partnering.
Our presence is going to be increasingly digital. We have a very robust digital iPad app that’s also on Kindle, so we’re moving a lot of our storytelling into the online arena as Keith and I look to find ways to broaden our reach. And this also gives us a chance to expand our photographic coverage.
I’m looking at how we train our photo editors here to think more about the Web and how to enhance the multimedia skills of our photographers. Now, when we start a story, from the very beginning we have a lot of discussion about multimedia.
Until now, the photo editors of the magazine didn’t always have that much to do with the Web?
That’s right. And now we’re starting to have a lot more. There’s been new hires and new people that have come in that are really young and fantastic and have really a lot of bright ideas.
George Shiras/National Geographic The photography pioneer George Shiras made the first nighttime wildlife photos. Michigan, 1906.What do you want to do differently in print?
What we’ve always been about and what we’ll continue to be about is great storytelling. We want to tell stories in meaningful ways. We want to employ photographers and let their individual voices come through. I’d like to be expanding the way we tell stories, whether it’s portraiture or four-by-five film or essay.
I’d been working on this as a photo editor before I became director of photography. It’s bringing in new voices and new ways of telling stories, always looking out for photographers that have the ability to work for us and have a unique voice.
You grew up at National Geographic.
I pretty much did. I was a College Photographer of the Year in 1979, and the prize was an internship here. I actually did a magazine assignment under Bob Gilka, who recently passed away.
How long did you shoot for the Geographic?
Well, after my internship, I went away and worked for newspapers like The Topeka Capital Journal and and The Philadelphia Inquirer, and then I came back and started freelancing here around ’89. I did five covers and about 16 magazine stories.
Herbert G. Ponting/National Geographic A sled dog inspected a gramophone during Robert Scott’s 1910 expedition to the South Pole â€" a light note in a sad tale. Scott was beaten to the Pole, and his entire party perished. Antarctica, 1910.Why did you become an editor, then? You and I both know how much fun it is to be a photographer.
It is a lot of fun to be a photographer.
When you’re a photographer, often you do a lot of other things besides actual editorial assignment work to make ends meet. So I was doing a lot of teaching and photo research and photo editing, and I really enjoyed it. I found that to be very rewarding. I always kind of thought in the back of my mind that maybe some day I might be interested in doing more of that.
And there just happened to be an opening on the National Geographic’s photo editing staff, which doesn’t happen very often here because everybody really loves their jobs, so nobody leaves. I was actually working on a story at the time. So I applied for the job and they hired me in 2005.
Is there anything that you learned as a shooter here, or as an intern, that informs what you’re doing now?
Well, I know what it’s like to be on the other side of the camera, to be out there in the field. I am committed to a photographer’s success here. I want the photographers to come in here, especially the newer photographers, and really hit it out of the park â€" really succeed in a very brilliant way.
I do find this place can be very intimidating. Our stories are such long-term assignments, and we ask a lot of our photographers. I find that giving photographers the support and guidance and encouragement they need to succeed here is really important.
I can’t thank the people who helped me, guided me here enough, like the former directors of photography Robert Gilka, Rich Clarkson, Kent Kobersteen and Tom Kennedy. These people, they had your back. I think that’s really, really important.
What would you hope people walk away from the exhibition in Los Angeles with?
The exhibit and the October issue are built on the theme of “the power of photography.†As an institution, we believe photography has the power to illuminate, educate and, perhaps, to put it rather boldly, change the world. We partner with photographers who are as passionate about this as we are and who are dedicated to using photography to make a difference and to show you the beauty and the tragedy all around us.
Maria Stenzel/National Geographic Suspended above winter sea ice, researchers study an ecosystem resistant to easy observation. Ice-breaking ships and other technologies have opened a new scientific frontier. Antarctica, 1996.“The Power of Photography: National Geographic 125 Years†will be on view at the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles from Oct. 26 through April 27, 2014.
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