Hi I'm Tamara Lackey, in this episode of
redefine show for AdoramaTV, I sit down
with Amy Vitale at PBE in New York City
National Geographic magazine
photographer, photojournalist, fellow
Nikon ambassador, we talk about her
extraordinary career in general and her
defining work with pandas specifically,
so adorable,
check it out.
Hi Ami. Hi. How are you? Great how are you?
Good so we're here at PBE, Photo Blus Expo in
New York City. We are. And we've been here for a
while, so we're a little punchy.
That is true and you are not necessarily a
big city aficionado, correct? I am lost, put me in
the wild I'm fine, but this is, I'm late
for everything. I can't judge the traffic
times. It's too many people, too many
people because you live in Montana. I do.
While you're based in Montana
Yes theoretically. How much do you
travel with your job?
This year has been horrendous,
I think I've been home in a year about a
month. Wow in total? Yes not all in one big chunk.
Right you didn't like move
into one spot and stay,
like where have you been just this year?
Oh gosh,
China multiple times, Kenya multiple times
I can't even remember, but Germany
most recently, I don't know, lots of places
It's all a big blur,
yeah, and you're, I mean obviously you've
done so much work and so much beautiful
work that many people pick up and share
and love, but you're kind of, you kind of
are known, and I love that you're in
black-and-white when I asked this, but as
like the panda. The panda. Yes and I've got the
circle around my eyes too.
How did all that start?
That was a journey I started back in
2013 and I was part of this film crew to
photograph the first captive panda being
sent into the wild. Right. And it just
captured my heart and I couldn't let go
and I knew I had to do a story on this
and it ended up taking about three years
to get the access and get all the images
I needed. Three years just to get the
permissions. To get permits, I mean it's
not easy working in China and getting
access is, I mean for any story, it's all
about getting good access. Yeah. How you
do that, it just takes time and trust, and
you know, a lot of patience and so it
was multiple trips, because you had to
capture all these different aspects of
this incredible story. It's really a
minor miracle, in fact,
the panda has been taken off the endangered
species list, just a month ago.
Wow just like a month ago? Just a month ago,
which is I know. That is an amazing thing.
and I think we're just so used to,
but Pandas why would they be endangered?
so what is the history with all that?
Yeah so pandas, it turns out weren't
discovered, I mean they were as elusive as
Bigfoot, they were as mythical
as Bigfoot nobody knew they even existed
until the last hundred years and the
first one was only captured alive in 1936.
Oh and so we're so used to seeing
them everywhere in cartoons. Yes and like
and I don't know. They're prolific in that
respect. If there's any human that hasn't
seen a panda
yeah or something. Kung Fu Panda. Exactly right,
so we're so familiar with them we can't
imagine that they are, you know, this new
to our, you know,
to our lexicon.
Was it something that you were
assigned to this job,
you wanted to create this job,
is it a personal project
you pitched it some place? No the funny
thing is, in the beginning I almost
turned the job down, because, I'm like,
you know what
pandas have been photographed a million
times. What could I possibly do that's
different?
How can I make this story unique? Right?
Yeah and that's the key,
like you know,
everything's been photographed on the
planet right and I'm looking for unique
topics. Absolutely. And so the more I
started researching, the more I really
dug into this story, I realized this is
special and there's like, a lot of things
that haven't been told and that's what
really piqued my interest but then once
you figure out that there are
these unique aspects, it's like, how do
you get in? Right. And it wasn't, you know
I had permission from the upper, you know,
parts, but the people, were you know
they're very protective of the
pandas. Right. Because they're like million
dollar babies and it's like. Literally?
Literally, pandas get rented out to zoos
for millions of dollars every year.
I did not know that.
Yes. You are a font of panda knowledge.
So I have this photograph of Papa panda
with his bumper crop of baby pandas
I think it was like twenty or twenty three
pandas that were laid out on top of him
and if you think about it. Oh I've seen it. It's like a
billion-dollar picture. Wow, wow. Not a
billion, I mean maybe like, you know
45 million that day, so it was you
know, he was really, he's like, "hurry up,
get these pandas back to their mothers"
because you know they're just,
worried about their health.
And then so, so a job like
that, where you go after it, is that
something that you go to, because you do work for so
many organizations right like National
Geographic, who else?
Well alot of conservation
organizations so I'm really focused on
I mean most of my work, I really try to give
back to the conservation world. Right. And
people that are making progress and so
there's, you know, we're seeing species
and it's so funny because I was such a,
I always photographed people and
photographs sort of. Your least favorite species.
Right like social issues and you know.
Yes. Human rights issues and I really
focused on that for the first 10 years
of my career and somehow lately I just
realized how we're so intricately
connected and when one dies, so does the
other, we need each other and I've
really been focusing on all the critters
that need our help now. Yes
So yeah. And then so, that job, did you
just did you pitch it to somebody or did you
just go shoot it? I did yes, getting back,
yeah, you know and I'll just keep going.
So, I went once
and I realized this is special, I have
something special to say here so I
pitched it to National Geographic and
guess what they said no, because they had
done a story on pandas seven or eight
years previously and there's basically
and pandas had been done. They had been done,
well there's a ten year window with Nat Geo
Oh I did not know that. So if a story has been done
anything sort of related to it,
you need to wait about ten years before we
can revisit that topic. So I had to kind
of convince them that I was going to do
something a little bit different than
had already been done.
Right OK
And so that took a lot of convincing
and then once they were in I think
people were on board and excited and
they ended up bumping up the page count
by six pages.
Which is huge.
Which was huge and it was
exciting and it got published in the
august issue and it's online and I have
a cute little movie
that will blow your mind
and if you're feeling depressed
just go visit it, because it, you realize,
The baby pandas.
The world is still a magical place.
Yes, the baby pandas,
and we can show that here.
So the baby pandas, first of all, that was,
was that a separate thing?
The baby panda movie?
No well I was shooting videos the whole time.
So you just got this amazing adorable melting footage.
Yeah because you need hear them you need to
hear the sounds they make and it'll just,
you'll die of cuteness overload basically.
Isn't there some piece
or some article out there
that says, that humans have a reaction
baby pandas that feels like.
I think so, I think that I read that it's the same
thing when a mother looks at her baby
that people have, the same
chemicals are released. Right. When people look
at baby pandas. Yeah. Because they're
that adorable.
That's why they're kind of this iconic
animal that represent the whole
conservation movement. Yeah. WWF.
Is that another client too?
No they're actually not a client. They're not a client
No, they should be
Right, no kidding
and then so the conservation thing,
because you also have done a lot of work to
showcase the harm of poaching.
Right so the plight of a lot of you know less
charismatic species. The ones that aren't as cute
The ones that don't make melt. Those are
actually, you know people always say what
is your spirit animal and I would say right
now it is the Rhino and elephants and
frankly all these lesser known species
that are going extinct in our lifetime.
Right. We don't realize it and we,
I think people don't even understand how
connected we all are and how important,
I mean once they're gone they're gone
forever and that's it. Yes that's it.
And so you know I didn't understand how
quickly it's happening, in our
generation, in our lifetime. Right.
And I also feel quite hopeful I have
certain amount of optimism. If we can get,
if China can save the Panda from extinction
why can't we do it?
You know in some ways
they hold the keys too. Yeah.
For all these other species. Right.
And everything is connected and
that's why I'm so focused right now
on hopeful stories.
I found places in northern Kenya
where things are turning
around and they're making strides the
numbers of black rhinos for example are
starting to creep slowly back up.
Fabulous, yeah.
Yeah and you do that right?
You're consciously focusing on
showcasing the hope versus just the gore
and the sorrow right? Absolutely because I, mean I
covered conflicts for about eight years
and I realized that if you only,
it doesn't want, do you want to get out of
bed in the morning when all you see is
just gloom and just the worst parts of
this planet and the truth is everywhere
I go I still see this magical world and
people doing the right things and
I think that that's going to be what
motivates action and change.
Thank you so much Amy those pandas were
just adorable.
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