Michael “Nick” Nichols, a native of Alabama, is an award-winning photographer whose work has taken him to the most remote corners of the world. He became a staff photographer for the National Geographic magazine in 1996 and was named editor at large in January 2008. From 1982 to 1995 he was a member of Magnum Photos, the prestigious cooperative founded by Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa. He lives in Sugar Hollow, VA, with his wife, artist Reba Peck.
Nichols is a wildlife journalist; his narratives are epics where the protagonists are lions, elephants, tigers, and chimps. Scientist-conservationists like Jane Goodall, J. Michael Fay, Iain Douglas-Hamilton and Craig Packer are all in featured roles. He came to the magazine with the legacy of a childhood spent in the woods of his native Alabama, reading Tarzan and John Carter of Mars adventures.
Nick has published 28 stories with National Geographic magazine, including “Giant Sequoias” (NGM December 2012) and “Orphans No More” (NGM September 2011), the final chapter in his twenty-year endeavor to document the emotional intelligence of elephants.
At the heart of Nick’s mission is to preserve true wildness. Whether in the redwood forests of California or the acacia plains of Kenya, it must be documented, nurtured and protected. Nick is working to create images that show what we have to gain in caring for this magnificent planet and what we have to lose.