Paul Nicklen wants to inspire us to stop "thrashing the planet"

A new collection of the photographer's work celebrates our beautiful world—and shows how much we stand to lose.

A white bear rests against moss-covered forest in the Great Bear Rainforest, where heavy rainfall and humidity support lush, green vegetation.
A Kermode bear, also called a spirit bear, rests in British Columbia's mossy Great Bear Rainforest, where heavy rainfall and mild temperatures support lush green vegetation. The spirit bears are a rare subspecies of black bear, found only along Canada's Pacific coast, with a recessive genetic mutation that causes their ghostlike white fur.
Photographs byPaul Nicklen
Text byAnnie George
Published July 28, 2026

In his 30 years as a photographer and cinematographer, Paul Nicklen has experienced it all—from living on the sea ice, to surviving plane crashes and dislocated shoulders, to sleeping many nights under the stars. And in this unpredictable wilderness, he finds the deepest sense of peace. "It’s always been the reverence I have for nature. I mean, I don’t want to get too religious or anti-religious, but that's my church, and that's where I find everything makes sense,” Nicklen told National Geographic. “I've had nothing but reverence for nature since I was a little kid."

Nicklen has dedicated his life to documenting our blue planet’s incredible beauty—and this July, he’s publishing his latest book of photos, Reverence, out from Hemeria on July 28, which coincides with World Conservation Day. From images of rare bear species in British Columbia to color-changing squid in Indonesia, Nicklen’s book encapsulates his career as a photographer and his raw love for nature. 

Nicklen hopes his passion might spark a love for conservation in readers.  “If the work could be powerful enough that people all of the sudden wake up and feel something and recognize that we've lost so much on this planet ... seventy percent of biodiversity is gone, but there's still so much more worth fighting for, ” he says. “And then, to create that emotional connection for people, that's often enough for them to get involved.” 

Above all, Nicklen stresses how very lucky humans are to share the world with creatures great and small—and how we need to stop “thrashing this planet.” 

“When you spend 300 days a year in nature, you know that when you see the complexities and the thousands of species, when you dive on the coral reefs or look into the eye of a sperm whale or a gray whale, and when you witness all this beauty,” he says, “you realize you could not fabricate or dream of a heaven that could be more perfect and more beautiful than what we're experiencing right now.”  

An aerial view of narwhals swimming in water with ice.
A large aggregation of narwhals, called a blessing, surfaces near Canada's Baffin Island, where seasonal ice melt funnels the migrating whales together.
A tube anemone extends its tentacles through the sediment during a night dive in Lembeh Strait, Indonesia, capturing plankton and small particles under blue light.
A tube anemone extends its waving tentacles to capture plankton and small particles in the waters of Indonesia's Lembeh Strait.
Bigfin reef squid, known for its rapid color-changing ability, photographed on a night dive in Raja Ampat, Indonesia.
A bigfin reef squid, known for its kaleidoscopic ability to rapidly change color, is photographed on a night dive in the Raja Ampat archipelago, Indonesia.
An up-close, black and white photo of a whales eye.
A mother gray whale gazes into an underwater camera dome off the coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico. The waters here are so rich in biodiversity that Jacques Cousteau once called the region the world's aquarium.
Mobula rays swim underwater in mass numbers as light shines down on them
Mobula rays gather in the Gulf of California, drawn by the region's plankton-rich waters, which also serve as a mating ground. The glider-like fins of the rays help them gather speed for fantastic leaps into the air—a behaviour that still mystifies scientists.
Steller sea lions pass a sea star between them off the shore of British Columbia, Canada, in a playful game.
Steller sea lions play pass with a sea star off the shores of Canada's British Columbia. The species is the largest of the eared seals and when males are fully grown, they can weigh up to 2,500 pounds.
A black and white photo of dolphins swimming on the surface of the water.
Short-beaked common dolphins break through the surface of the ocean off the coast of Portugal's Azores archipelago.
Barracuda swim together forming a tornado
Barracuda form a tornado of flashing scales, a behavior common in the smaller Indo‑Pacific species of the fish.
Up-close black and white portrait of a bear.
Getting up close with a majestic bear in Alaska's Katmai National Park and Preserve: More than 2,000 brown bears live in the preserve's four million acres, where they gorge on salmon and briny snacks like razor clams.
Non-stinging spotted jellyfish, also called golden medusa, drift together in a marine lake in Raja Ampat, likely having lost their stinging cells over generations.
Non-stinging spotted jellyfish, also called golden medusa, drift together in a marine lake in Raja Ampat, at the center of Southeast Asia's "Coral Triangle."
A herd of goats crosses sand dunes in Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Brazil, a region famous for its seasonal lagoons and white sand landscapes.
A herd of goats crosses sand dunes in Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, Brazil, a region famous for its seasonal lagoons and multicolored landscapes.