Local Hero

Social Media Serves a Photographer’s Protection Project

- Barry Tanenbaum

CAROL FREEMAN BEGAN the Endangered Species Photography Project 15 years ago. Her aim was to photograph all the endangered species in her home state of Illinois, in the hope that awareness would foster protection for the threatened species and their habitats. “You can’t just have the monarch butterfly,” Freeman says. “You need the habitat that supports it. For people to care, they first have to know what’s going on.”

So far Freeman has documented 168 species; the fact that there are 315 to go is both daunting and inspiring.