Chris Rainier

Chris Rainier is considered one of the leading documentary photographers working today. His mysterious images of sacred places and indigenous peoples of the planet have been seen in the leading publications of the day including: Time, Life, National Geographic publications, Outside, Conde Nast Traveler, Equinox, The New York Times, Smithsonian, Mens Journal, Islands, The New Yorker, German and French Geo, and the publications of the International Red Cross, The United Nations, and Amnesty International. Rainier, a Canadian citizen, is a photographer for National Geographic Society and specializes in documenting indigenous cultures for the Societies Cultures Initiative. His photographs and books have been widely exhibited and collected around the world.

Chris is a Co-Director of the National Geographic Society Cultures program, and Director of the Cultures on the Edge website under the auspices of NGS. Rainier is a contributing Editor for National Geographic Traveler and regularly completes stories on Culture.

From 1980 to 1985, Rainier was photographic and environmental assistant to Ansel Adams - the noted landscape photographer.

He has received numerous awards for his photography including: Five Picture of the Year Awards for his continued documentation of vanishing tribes, A Communication Arts award for his last book on New Guinea, Where Masks Still Dance: New Guinea, a recipient of an Alfred Eisenstadt Award in 1998 for his photography of the Sahara desert, and an International Golden Light Award in 1994 for his first book: KEEPERS OF THE SPIRIT. Chris was recently included in American Photo Magazine’s 100 most influential people working in Photography today list.

Rainier has traveled to all seven continents, and has been apart of a 1992 expedition to the North Pole and seven expeditions to Antarctica. During the 1990’s he worked as a war photographer for Time Magazine covering conflicts in: Sarajevo/Bosnia, Somalia, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Rwanda, and the Middle East. He is a member of the Explorers Club in New York City, and in 2002 won their prestigious Lowell Thomas Award for Adventure story telling. He is also the Director of a website connecting tribal cultures around the globe through the internet, called Cultures on the Edge (culturesontheedge.com) at The Ethnosphere Project at The National Geographic Society

His second book: WHERE MASKS STILL DANCE: NEW GUINEA was published in 1996 with an exhibition that is presently touring Museums both in North America and Asia.