MASK – Documenting Traditional Cultures

This episode is a huge deal for me. Today on Behind the Shot I get to talk with Chris Rainier, and Chris is the first working National Geographic photographer I have had on the show. As I am writing this, a few days before recording with Chris, I am nervous. Chris Rainier is the best of the best. His new book MASK is something every photographer should check out, but more on that later.

Chris is a National Geographic Society EXPLORER and documentary photographer/filmmaker, and he is highly respected for his documentation of endangered cultures and traditional languages around the globe. His accomplishments are outstanding. He is the Director of The Cultural Sanctuaries Foundation – a global program focused on preserving Biodiversity and Traditional Cultural Knowledge. During his continued tenure with the National Geographic Society he has been the co-founder and co-director of both the Enduring Voices Language Project and Director of the All Roads Photography Program, designed to support indigenous groups with modern technology desiring to document their traditional culture and create sustainable solutions to preserve the planet in the 21st Century. In addition, as a NG Fellow he was an Editor for NG Traveler focused on documentation of traditional culture.

In 2002 Chris was awarded the Lowell Thomas Award by the Explorers Club for his efforts on cultural preservation, and in 2014 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society of London/UK -specializing in cultural preservation.

Chris has completed photographic projects for the United Nations, UNESCO, Amnesty International, Conservation International, the Smithsonian Institution, Time Magazine, the New York Times, LIFE Magazine, and the National Geographic Society. Rainier has photographed global culture, conflict, famine, and war in such places as: Somalia, Sarajevo/Bosnia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Cambodia, and Iraq for TIME Magazine, – and for NPR Radio.

As an educator he lectures around the Globe for organizations such as TED Global, Aspen IDEAS Festival, The United Nations, National Geographic, Google, Apple , Samsung, and the Royal Geographic Society.

In the early 1980’s Chris Rainier was Ansel Adams’ last photographic assistant. Stop and think about that for a moment. Chris was Ansel Adams’ assistant…. now you should start to understand the level of photographer I am talking about. During his tenure with the noted photographer- he worked with Mr. Adams to amplify the use of Art Photography as a social tool – helping to preserve threatened wilderness areas and National Parks. Rainier went on to collaborate with UNESCO and IUCN on a Global Project using photography to preserve endangered wilderness areas around the world.

In 2019 Chris will be a judge at the ROAM Awards. ROAM is an organization that chronicles the “grandeur of outdoor adventure, the thrill of outdoor sports and of how these expeditions — when carried out mindfully and with purpose — transform us and nourish our relationships with the earth, and each other”. The judging panel is a collection of photographers that will blow your mind. Along with Chris you’ll see Chase Jarvis, Ron Dawson, Maria Coffey, Travis Rice and more.

Rainier’s photography and books have been widely shown and collected by museums around the world, including the Australian Museum in Sydney, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, the International Center of Photography in New York, the George Eastman House International Museum in Rochester, New York, The National Geographic Society, and the United Nations.

That brings us to his book MASK. This book is a culmination of years of work. According to the book website:

“For over thirty years, Chris has been in search of the meaning of the mask. What began as a thorough visual documentation of the traditional mask rituals of New Guinea developed into a voyage of discovery that took him around the globe photographing traditional mask traditions. From the steppes of Mongolia to the jungles of South America, from the deserts of West Africa to the continent of India and the high Himalayan mountain monasteries of Tibet and Bhutan, from Day of the Dead Festivals in Mexico to the lands of the First Nation tribes of North America and from Sri Lanka to modern Europe, Chris has documented hundreds of different rituals of the tradition of the mask, both on still film and video”

The images in this book are amazing. Chris sent me a few high resolution copies, and the amount of detail and color are something I am not sure I’ve ever seen.

Join world renowned National Geographic photographer Chris Rainier and me as we discuss documenting traditional cultures, and one of the images from his new book MASK, on this episode of Behind the Shot.

Connect with Chris

Website: chrisrainier.org
MASK Book: maskjourney.com

MASK Review on CNN

Photographer documents world’s most dramatic ritual masks

ROAM Media

ROAM Media: roammedia.com
ROAM Awards: roammedia.com/awards