Finding Humanity Through Photos | National Geographic

[Music] Creativity and rhythm, I think, go hand in hand for me. Once I get a rhythm, then breaking that is where I get inspiration. [Applause] As a little kid, I was always catching critters and snakes. Once I got a camera, that grew into photographing them, and that's really where my story with photography began. When you see that face, that's just got such a character.

I'm Sam Tippitz. I'm a 23-year-old photographer from Bernie, Texas. Being raised in small-town Texas, you know, that's a part of me for sure. Texans are sort of proud to be from Texas; you know, it doesn't define who you are, but it's a piece of who you are. So I really enjoy putting that piece of me into my photography.

I was never formally taught. I was kind of, in many ways, a child of the internet. I enjoyed figuring out how cameras work by myself. It gave me a lot of freedom at the beginning because I didn't really start out trying to emulate anyone. Photography has taken me to interesting places. When I graduated college, I went traveling around Southeast Asia for about a year, hitchhiking on boats and sort of living out of a backpack, finding these different really cool conservation centers and photographing their work.

I also went to South Africa to photograph the rhino crisis. That was really the first time I felt like my photos would make a difference, and my gear started turning up what photography could be used for. I like the authentic part of photographing human and animal interaction. I want people to get that sense of connection. I'm driven by relationships and my photography. My family, when I'm traveling, they're constantly sending me texts, you know, checking in on me.

This idea of just kind of putting yourself out there is something my mom's really good at, and so she's kind of taught me, like, you just kind of gotta go for it and take risks. When I heard about Assignment Inspiration, I knew I had to apply. Over four thousand people submitted photos. You know, hearing that number, it's pretty humbling to think that I was chosen out of that.

And it's really hard to put into words, as someone who grew up reading National Geographic, idolizing the photographers, how much it would mean to me to go on assignment with Nachio Travel. I kind of wake up every day, and I'm just pumped to be here. To me, the stakes are so high. There's nothing else that I really want to do. It would be life-changing. [Music]