Photo Ark

"I think of myself as an ambassador, a voice for the voiceless."

"It’s hard to avoid anthropomorphism - hard not to read human attitude and intentions into the bodies and faces of these creatures. We gaze into their eyes and see another living being. These are mirrored reflections by which we connect to the animals of the Photo Ark, finding the many ways in which they look like each other - and like us."

"When you look them in the eye, you see clearly that we’re not so very different."

"It amazes me that some of our most well-known species are the ones that are closest to extinction."

"All creatures great and small are valuable and magnificent, and all deserve the right to exist."

"How do we treat the least among us? That is the true measure of any society."

"Increasingly, zoos are serving as conservation centers. They’re the real arks now, and the only thing that stand between many rare species and extinction."

"The animals I photograph are passive and aggressive, shy and showoff, silly and playful. In other words, they’re just like us."

"Our water, our food, the air we breathe, the fertility of our soil, and the stability of our climate: All of these depend on the complex interactions of myriad species. Think of nature as a tapestry, and each species as a thread. There is no way of knowing which threads bind the whole thing together. Each one that is pulled brings the tapestry closer to unraveling."

"This doesn’t have to end here. You can save species if you try. Each of us can have a real and lasting impact."

"Every animal, no matter how small or seemingly insignificantly, has a role to play in the delicate balance of nature."

"This is one of the most scientifically important — and artistically brilliant — books ever."