The Chief of Editors
Ok, I know that Missoula isn’t in SouthWest Montana, but last week the Editor-in-Chief of National Geographic came to the University of Montana as part of the Journalism School’s centennial celebration. For a blogger, that’s the pretty big deal. Nat Geo is the absolute pinnacle of travel storytelling. I skipped trivia (and cheap microbrew) night at the bar to listen to this guy, that’s how excited I was.
Chris Johns started as a freelance photographer, working for, among others, Time, Life and National Geographic. In 1995 he became one of National Geographic’s few staff photographers. He has been the Editor-in-Chief since 2005. During his time as a photographer, he published over 20 articles, including 8 cover stories. In a magazine renowned for its photos, Johns is the first non-writer to be Editor-in-Chief. Under his tenure, the magazine and website have emerged as one of the world’s best vehicles for immersive storytelling, merging photos and writing with videos, multimedia, audio and interactive displays.
To establish his authority as the coolest guy in the room, Johns showed a video towards the beginning of his speech. The video showed him photographing cheetahs. One of the cheetahs went to Johns and sniffed around his equipment. The cheetah smelled his hand, bit his camera lens, and then wandered off. Although ostensibly about the history and future of National Geographic, Johns’ talk centered on one piece of advice, “Find your voice as a person first, and then as a photographer [or writer, or artist].” Johns was very likely the most intense person in that room (for example, he took this photo while hanging out the side of an airplane) but he came across as humble and down-to-earth. In fact, for all the incredible stuff he has done, he spent most of the night talking about the other great photographers at National Geographic. For them, photography and travel are not just a business, or a way of having exciting adventures, but a way of expressing a deep compassion for the people, places and animals of the world. His talk was an inspiring reminder to me of how meaningful travel and adventure can be.
Johns’ ability to capture the human experience is on full display in this gallery of photos of South Africa’s Bushmen. You can view a gallery of his work for National Geographic by typing his name in the search box on this page.
And, because all things come back to Montana eventually, National Geographic is celebrating its 125th year with a feature issue about the Yellowstone ecosystem. I’m not sure when that will come out, but I do know that by the time it does, some of the magazine’s best writers and photographers will have spent over a year in the area, documenting the ecosystem of the world’s first national park.
