Photographer – Joel Sartore ✔Certified
Northern White Rhinoceros (Nabire) (2015) Impact🟪+ Effort🟧: 91%
Joel Sartore’s photograph of Nabire, a northern white rhinoceros, was taken at Dvůr Králové Zoo in the Czech Republic in July 2015 as part of the Photo Ark project. When this portrait was made, Nabire was one of only five northern white rhinos left on Earth. She died on Monday, July 27, 2015, just one week after the photograph was taken. The photograph uses Sartore’s signature studio portrait approach with controlled lighting and a stark black background, eliminating environmental distractions to create direct eye contact with the subject. Today, only two northern white rhinos remain alive, both female, making the species functionally extinct. The photograph has become one of the most recognized images from the Photo Ark, appearing in exhibitions worldwide and projected onto monuments including the Empire State Building and United Nations headquarters.
Here’s how this rating breaks down using the Consistent Multi-Criteria Rubric method:
Technical Skill and Execution (25% of total score): 9/10 = 2.25 points Exceptional technical mastery photographing massive subject with controlled studio lighting and large-format camera.
Composition and Framing (25% of total score): 8/10 = 2.00 points Strong compositional simplicity isolating rhino against black background creating powerful visual impact.
Subject and Timing (20% of total score): 10/10 = 2.00 points Unprecedented historical timing photographing one of last five northern white rhinos week before death.
Visual Impact and Clarity (15% of total score): 9/10 = 1.35 points Extraordinary visual impact with worldwide exhibition reach and projection onto Empire State Building and UN headquarters.
Emotional Impact and Expression (15% of total score): 10/10 = 1.50 points Maximum emotional impact crystallizing extinction crisis into single profound image of irreplaceable individual.
Total: 91%
