Endangered islands. Hawaii is one of the most biologically extravagant places on Earth. But it is one whose diversity is most threatened with extinction. There is a luxuriousness in the photographers' exploration of the islands in mid-Pacific. But there is also a sad urgency, for they know they are photographing species that may not exist when they return.

The Hawaiian islands are 16,700 square kilometers (6,450 square miles) of volcanic earth rising above the sea some 3,200 kilometers (almost 2,000 miles) from North America. They house about 2,000 species of higher plants, 6,500 species of insects, 65 species and subspecies of birds, and more than 1,000 species of land snails.

Each species represents an unusual event in international travel: It is the product of evolution in the islands from a few plants and animals that somehow made it across the ocean. Far less unusual is the disappearance of species because of the pressures of population growth, industrial agriculture, and the arrival of competing non-native species.

Islands such as those in the Hawaiian group have fostered a specialized field of study. In 1967, scientists Robert H. Mac Arthur and E. O. Wilson published their "theory of island biogeography," which holds, among other things, that there is a consistent relationship between species living on islands and the islands' area (that is, available habitat for those species). A tenfold increase in area produces a doubling of species numbers. 

Right: A small island off Oahu. (© 1999 Fred Powledge.) 

Liittschwager and Middleton -- 2

                 The endangered 'other'

  These are lessons the two absorbed from commercial photography. “There’s a lot to be learned from advertising,” says Liittschwager. “It certainly is flawed. But it’s powerful. I hope I can use the fact that I was trained as an advertising photographer to good effect for something other than selling people things that they don’t really need.

  “To me, the most interesting things to photograph are the things that somehow have been so disregarded and considered so other that they have not been included in our consciousness and have suffered from such neglect that they are about to be extinguished completely from the face of the Earth.” And that is why Middleton and Liittschwager are using their Biodiversity Leadership Award to continue an ambitious expedition to Hawaii, a paradoxical paradise of biodiversity and species endangerment, to photograph plants and animals that have been pushed to the threshold of extermination.

  “Working in Hawaii,” said Susan Middleton one day on Oahu, the most populous island in the Hawaii chain, “it can be hard to be optimistic. This is the cutting edge of the extinction crisis. But it’s a double-edged thing, because Hawaii’s one of the richest places, biologically, on Earth. An evolutionary frenzy took place here, unlike anywhere else on Earth. It’s a great place to visually see evidence for evolution. You can see it with your own eyes.”

  Middleton and her photographic partner have enabled others to see the products of evolution in ways that would be inaccessible to most people. Their books and exhibits show, almost always up very close, the faces and personalities of nature as it is rarely seen. 

  They do not limit themselves to one kingdom or the other. They have photographed the West Indian manatee, the small whorled pogonia, the Texas blind salamander, the Tooth Cave spider, the wood bison, and the Arizona agave. Each of the photographs — some with black backgrounds, some with white, some in color and some monochrome — stops the viewer in his or her tracks, demanding attention and respect.

Where's the habitat?  Some might find it unusual that photographs that make such a strong case for habitat preservation should be devoid of habitat themselves. The picture of the endangered boulder darter of Tennessee and Alabama shows a fish against a black background, with none of the large rocks that form its home and make its survival possible. Liittschwager and Middleton moved their camera to within inches of the watchful eyes of the Florida panther — a little too close, said the man who looks after the big cat, and so the photographers backed off an inch or so. But there is no sign in the picture of the pine forests or wetlands of the Everglades that once served as the panther’s territory.

  “It’s most gratifying to us, as photographers, to be able to reveal the unique character and beauty of a particular animal or plant in a way that no one has seen before,” explains Middleton. “The pictures are meant to be somewhat provocative because they’re not done in traditional nature-photography style.  

  “That’s very intentional on our part. We want the images not only to provoke an emotional response to the actual creature, but also to show an animal or plant isolated. All alone. All by itself in this black space or this white space. That’s very unnatural.”

[To Liittschwager-Middleton Page 3]

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