The Photo Ark: One Man’s Quest to Document the World’s Animals by Joel Sartore
Nonfiction

This stunning collection of photos is Sartore’s attempt to document every species in human care, an archive representing the world’s biodiversity, compiled out of concern for rising rates of extinction. The pages explode with color, the animals displayed like jewels on black velvet or plain white backgrounds, allowing us to see each animal without distraction. The chapter “Mirrors,” focuses on family groups, like the mama-baby portraits the white-bellied pangolin and the Pygmy hippopotamus, or unlikely pairings such as the springbok mantis and the arctic fox, both shown with cocked heads, or the curved armored backs of the giant deep-sea roach and the southern three-banded armadillo. “Partners” portrays pairs or groups of animals in real or imagined partnerships--cat and mouse, birds and bees, males and females; or in groups or packs--a colony of Texas leaf cutter ants, or African wild dogs. “Opposites” includes what Sartore describes as “the other, the rival” and “Curiosities” are the outlier animals, the oddballs. The book closes with “Stories of Hope”, which features species that have rebounded from the brink of extinction through human intervention. Breathtaking, intriguing and inspiring, this is a book to savor.

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