Christina M. Selby
Visual Artist, Multi-media Storyteller, Author, Naturalist
M.A. Environment & Community, B.Sc. Ecology, Evolution and Animal Behavior
A Little About Me:
As a visual artist and writer focused on the natural world and the efforts to preserve it, I use multimedia storytelling as a powerful tool to share the beauty of the planet and motivate others to act on behalf of nature. I use aerial, macro, landscape, underwater, remote camera, photojournalism, and any other technique required to tell engaging stories that speak to our shared need for beauty and connection to nature. My storytelling focuses around remembering who we are in relation to the more-than-human world, what we can be, and our place in the world as caretakers.
I have covered such stories as changes in migration patterns of Rocky Mountain sandhill cranes, a rural community saving an endangered sunflower, biologists finding a lost species of monkey in the Amazon, ranchers saving the rainforest through sustainable beef production in Brazil, and allocating water rights to nature to keep the river alive in the Rio Grande Valley. My work has appeared in publications such as: Audubon Magazine, Sierra Magazine, bioGraphic, Scientific American, National Geographic online, Outdoor Photographer, New Mexico Magazine, The Guardian, High Country News, Mongabay, among others and has benefitted organizations such as The Nature Conservancy New Mexico, New Mexico Wild, Defenders of Wildlife - Southwest, Audubon Southwest, and NM State Forestry/Endangered Plants Program.
I share my passion for the outdoors in my books Best Wildflower Hikes of New Mexico (FalconGuides, March 2020), New Mexico Family Outdoor Adventures (UNM Press, September 2021), and produced and co-directed of the feature documentary Saving Beauty: Learning to Live with the Rare Ones Among Us. In 2022, I became an Emerging League Member of the International League of Conservation Photographers.
I co-founded and for over a decade co-directed the non-profit environmental education organization Earth Care. I learned fluent Spanish while living as a Peace Corps Volunteer for three years in Panama, and Portuguese when spending a year working on conservation photojournalism assignments in Brazil, a country I return to often. While the Americas have my heart, I have lived and traveled extensively in Europe, India and beyond.
My professional background includes working in aquatic research, environmental education, sustainable development, environmental non-profits, and science journalism, as well as short stints as a dishwasher at a Friday night fish fry, a hotel cleaning lady, file organizer, waitress at a Vietnamese restaurant, dog kennel keeper, natural history museum docent, hiking trail maintainer, and fish tank cleaner.
When I’m not chasing lost monkeys in the Amazon, tracking Mexican wolves in the southwest, searching desert springs for tiny endemic snails, or hunting rare wildflowers in alpine meadows, you can find me at home in Santa Fe, New Mexico enjoying the simple pleasures of life with my two boys, husband, and Great Pyrenees "Glacier" and “Polar” in the stunning landscapes of the Southern Rockies.
I’m available for assignments, collaborations, and speaking engagements.
Photo by Sheena Chakeres
WORK EXPERIENCE
Producer, Co-director, Photographer, Videographer
Saving Beauty Project 2018-2022
Santa Rosa, New Mexico
The Saving Beauty film and project raises awareness about rare plants, their unique habitats, and the other endangered species that share their home through photography, film, journalism, and collaboration. The products include a documentary film, published articles, online Story Map, website, and public presentations.
Produced a 62-minute feature film that has screened at Santa Fe Film Festival, Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, Nature Without Borders International Film Festival, Docs without Borders Film Festival, Colorado Environmental Film Festival, the Pecos Theater during the First Annual Pecos Sunflower Festival in Santa Rosa, at conferences and in K-12 classrooms.
This production was shot on location over the course of 2 years. During production I acted as second video camera operator using Canon 5D Mark III, DJI Mavic Pro, GoPro, and a custom built long-term timelapse camera.
As the photographer for the project I produced an extensive portfolio of publication-quality images.
As producer and co-director, I completed all research, scheduled interviews and field time, developed treatments/pitches, created a digital campaign for funding, and managed other videographers, animators, editors and color graders.
Upon release, I set up screenings at virtual and in-person conferences, in classrooms, for groups of interest, in homes, at national and state parks, and at film festivals.
Collaborators: Endangered Plants Program/State Forestry/Energy, Minerals, Natural Resources Department, New Mexico Native Plant Society, City of Santa Rosa, Quivira Coalition, Livingry Foundation
Independent Journalist and Photographer
Houseboat Amazon Expedition January - May 2017
Rio Juruá, Acré, Brazil
On assignment for bioGraphic Magazine, for six weeks, I documented the Alto Juruá watershed, a remote biodiversity hotspot in the western Brazilian Amazon, aboard the Houseboat Amazon Expedition. Scientists mounted the expedition to conduct a mammal survey of the watershed and search for the Vanzolini Saki monkey which had not been documented since 1932 and was thought to have gone extinct. In fact, it is still alive, and we found it. My two feature articles about the expedition were published on bioGraphic and Mongabay. The story and my images were then published on National Geographic online and in over 40 other publications across the world.
Collaborators: bioGraphic Magazine, Mongabay.com, Global Conservation Institute
Photographer
Taiamã Expedition September 2017
Rio Paraguay, Pantanal, Brazil
I accompanied Dr. Carolina Da Silva and a team of scientists from universities in Mato Gross, Brazil to study the Pantanal’s wildlife and changing wetlands. We were based on the river island of Taiamã in the Rio Paraguay for seven days. My images have been used in conference presentations and in scientific journals in Brazil.
Professional Higlights
Published in:
bioGraphic
Audubon Magazine
Sierra Magazine
Scientific American
National Geographic Online
Outdoor Photographer
New Mexico Magazine
High Country News
The Guardian
Mongabay
Tumbleweeds
Ensia
2022 Emerging League Member, International League of Conservation Photographers
2016 Fellow, The Open Notebook/Burroughs Wellcome Fund
2016 Reporting Intern, Mongabay
2016-2017 Workshop Assistant, Santa Fe Photography Workshops
2003-2011 Co-Founder, Executive Director, Program Director, Earth Care
1999-2001 Peace Corps Volunteer, Panama
Awards
Top 24, North American Nature Photographers Association 2022 Showcase, Judge’s Choice Award, Conservation Category
Silver Award, International Regional Magazine Association Awards 2021, “Bloom Town” Story and Photos
New Mexico Book Design Award 2020 for Best Wildflower Hikes New Mexico
Big Picture Competition, Semi-Finalist 2019
New Mexico Magazine Photo Contest, Finalist 2018
Native Plant Society Photo Contest, 1st Place in Region 2018
North American Nature Photographers Top 250 Showcase 2018
New Mexico Environmental Educator of the Year 2013
Affiliations
International League of Conservation Photographers, Emerging League Member 2022, “a global community of professional photographers and filmmakers driving conservation impact through ethical visual storytelling.”
Her Wild Vision Initiative, Member since 2020, “a directory of the best, most-accomplished women and women-identifying conservation photographers and filmmakers in the world today.”
Wild Idea Lab, Founding Member
Speaking Engagements
I'm currently available for speaking engagements and photography slideshows (live or virtual) on the topics of Wildflower Hiking in New Mexico, Conservation Photography and Visual Storytelling, Rare & Endangered Plant Conservation, the American Southwest’s Arid-land Wetlands, and Climate Change in the Southern Rockies
UPCOMING
PAST
April 27, 2023 - Welcome to Piñon Country: Observations on Art and Advocacy with Katherine Ware, Photography Curator, New Mexico Museum of Art + Exhibition Tours
August 2021 - Saving Beauty Storytelling Project - Native Plant Society New Mexico Annual State Conference, Alamogordo, NM
October 6, 2021 - Wildflower Adventuring - Native Plant Society, Albuquerque Chapter
November 24, 2020 - New Mexico Wetlands Roundtable Conference (North) - A Sense of Place: Saving Beauty Project
November 5, 2020 - Q&A Panel following Premiere of Saving Beauty film, Quivira Coalition Regenerate Conference
June 24, 2020 - Wildflower Adventures in New Mexico Presentation to Santa Fe Master Gardeners
June 13, 2020 - Wildflower Hiking - Garden Journal Radio Show, KSFR
June 3, 2020 - Wildflower Adventures in New Mexico Presentation to Native Plant Society New Mexico - Taos Chapter
April 15, 2020 - Wildflower Adventures in New Mexico Presentation to Native Plant Society New Mexico - Santa Fe Chapter