DRY TORTUGAS

To celebrate the International Year of the Reef, our photo team wanted to find stories that centered around the work that The Nature Conservancy is doing around coral reefs. Jennifer Adler is a smart, knowledgeable photographer whose eye for underwater composition sets her apart from others who focus on this line of photographic work. By embedding her for a week with an all-female team of scientists performing coral outplanting work, Jenny took complete advantage of her time in the field, creating imagery of coral nurseries and the women at work in a refreshing, inspiring manner.

“Rolaine is an absolute gem. She is an incredible editor and a kind, caring person. She will be your biggest ally and your number one source of support in the field and also give invaluable feedback along the way that makes your images and storytelling stronger. Rolaine was crucial in transforming my photographs throughout my first Nature Conservancy assignment and has been a wonderful mentor ever since. She is incredibly organized and makes the planning, paperwork, travel, and metadata aspects of an assignment painless. Her open communication and genuine kindness made me feel confident going into two back to back assignments and she has an unparalleled ability to appear calm and focused when she is secretly juggling 6 other projects with photographers all over the world. Anyone who has had the privilege to work with Rolaine is lucky and I am forever grateful for her guidance and compassion and for helping me see and approach my work in a new way.”

-Jennifer Adler

(All photos on this page ©Jennifer Adler and used with permission from the photographer. Dry Tortugas feature to be published Summer 2019.)

MEXICO’S CARIBBEAN COAST

My first assignment with Jennifer Adler was one that focused on a coral reef rescue team that was training off the coast of Puerto Morelos, Mexico, to repair the Mesoamerican Reef in the event of a natural disaster. I went to Puerto Morelos to scout the location, interviewing fishermen, tour guides, scientists, government employees, and others who planned to participate in the coral reef rescue brigade training. This allowed me to better inform Jennifer of the characters, the work itself, and reef conditions to help focus the story on the topics of importance while she was on assignment. The assignment was compressed due to training schedules, and Jennifer produced excellent images within a very narrow window of time. Her underwater photos were published alongside a secondary assignment that I produced, featuring photos by Lisette Poole, who helped to show the environment above water of this coastal community in the Yucatan through her evocative imagery. This two pronged approach helped us to tell a well-rounded story on a very innovative project.