The Roger Tory Peterson Institute will open its next exhibit, Knowing Where to Stand, the first-ever exhibition of all current and past award-winning Environmental Impact Award-winning photography projects awarded by the North American Nature Photography Association.

An opening night celebration for the exhibition is scheduled for Friday, Aug. 8, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. In addition to lite bites, beverages and live music, the evening will feature a brief program by RTPI’s CEO Arthur Pearson and the exhibition curator, Rachael Kosinski. The exhibition runs through March 2026.

The exhibition also marks a reunion between RTPI and NANPA. In addition to his worldwide fame as artist and author of the Peterson Field Guide to Birds, Roger Tory Peterson was an accomplished nature photographer. In the early 1990s, he invited 100 fellow nature photographers to RTPI to discuss the future of nature photography. That meeting sparked the founding of the North American Nature Photography Association in 1994.

“We are thrilled to be reunited with NANPA,” Pearson said. “Their Environmental Impact Award is a powerful affirmation that Art Matters to the Planet.”

The title of the upcoming exhibition, Knowing Where to Stand, takes its cue from renowned nature photographer, Ansel Adams, who famously quipped that “a good photograph is knowing where to stand.” The award-winning photographers featured in the exhibition at RTPI also know where they stand on the critical conservation challenges of our time.

Among the award winners who will be featured in the exhibition is James Balog, whose documentary film, “Chasing Ice,” has screened in more than 170 countries and is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Doc Award, which celebrates films that have made the greatest impact on society. Other featured winners include Daniel J. Cox (Arctic Documentary Project), Tom Blagden (The Grand Canyon), Krista Schlyer (The Borderlands Project), Clay Bolt (Protecting North America’s Native Bees), Michael Forsberg, “Platte Basin Time Lapse), Carlton Ward, Jr., Mallory Dimmit and Joe Guthrie, (Florida Wildlife Corridor), Nial Benvie and Clay Bolt (Meet your Neighbors.)

The exhibition will feature, too, the 2025 Environmental Impact Award winner, Amy Gulick for “The Salmon Way: An Alaska State of Mind.”

“I’m honored to receive the Environmental Impact Award,” Gulick said recently. “I’m grateful to all and for the opportunity to continue to make the case for Life on Earth.”

The exhibition also affords the opportunity for RTPI to reunite with its former chief executive, Twan Leenders. In addition to authoring his own field guide for the reptiles and amphibians of Costa Rica, Leenders is an accomplished nature photographer, whose work features prominently as part “Meet Your Neighbors,” one of the Environmental Impact Award-winning projects. Some of Leenders’ photos will be featured in the exhibition, as well. Leenders also plans to conduct a photography program during the run of the exhibition.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Nature Photography Foundation (formerly the NANPA Foundation.)