Mac Stone - A Journey Through America’s Everglades

For centuries, people have viewed swamps and wetlands as obstacles to avoid. But for photographer Mac Stone, who documents the stories of wildlife in Florida's Everglades, the swamp isn't a hindrance — it's a national treasure. Through his stunning photographs, Stone shines a new light on a neglected, ancient and important wilderness. His message: get out and experience it for yourself. "Just do it — put your feet in the water," he says. "The swamp will change you, I promise." Mac Stone is a conservation photographer from Gainesville, Florida. Growing up exploring the springs, swamps, and hammocks of North Central Florida, he developed a passion for photography at a young age. Over the years his camera has carried him to some of the most remote and imperiled areas this side of the globe. For six months, Stone lived in Ecuador during the presidential overthrow of 2005 and worked with Wildlife Conservation Society biologists in the Amazon rainforest. Soon after, he moved to Honduras and lived in a small village along the Cangrejal River. For two years he taught photography to underprivileged youth as a way to raise environmental awareness in the region. Some of the students have gone on to win international acclaim and start up their own eco-tourism businesses. Through photography, Stone strives to start new conversations and expose the dynamic relationship between mankind and the natural world. Currently, his work focuses on America's swamps in an attempt to change public opinion towards our country’s wetlands. After spending five years living and working in the Everglades watershed, he released a 304-page coffee table book about the heralded River of Grass. Everglades: America's Wetland, published by University Press of Florida in October of 2014 has won a silver medal with the Florida Book Awards and is now in its second printing. When he is not photographing the bottomlands and backwoods of the southeastern US, Stone is a TED speaker, a product tester for Columbia Sportswear, a Google Trekker, winner of the Save Our Seas Foundation Marine Conservation Photography Grant, official photographer for Savage Race, a fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers and the Executive Director of Naturaland Trust.