Gary Braasch

Gary Braasch was an American photojournalist and environmental photographer whose four-decade career was defined by a deep commitment to documenting the natural world and bearing witness to the growing crisis of climate change. Born in 1942, Braasch built a reputation as one of the most skilled and dedicated environmental photographers of his generation, working across six continents to capture both the beauty of wild places and the accelerating damage being done to them by human activity. He died in 2016, leaving behind an extraordinary archive of images and a body of work that stands as both art and environmental record.

His most significant book, Earth Under Fire: How Global Warming Is Changing the World (2007), was the culmination of years of travel to document the visible effects of climate change in some of the world’s most vulnerable ecosystems. From retreating glaciers in Alaska and Greenland to bleaching coral reefs in the Pacific, from thawing permafrost in Siberia to shifting tree lines in the Rockies, Braasch photographed climate change as it was happening, making visible processes that were often discussed in abstract terms. The book paired his photographs with clear, science-grounded text and became an important resource for climate communicators and educators.

Braasch contributed to numerous magazines and conservation organizations throughout his career, including National Geographic, Time, Smithsonian, and the World Wildlife Fund. He was a longtime fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers and used that platform to mentor younger photographers and advocate for responsible, mission-driven environmental photography.

His legacy is that of a witness — a photographer who believed that seeing the world clearly was a moral act, and that images made with patience, craft, and scientific literacy could change how people understood and responded to the environmental challenges of the age.