Ben
Horton

Ben Horton is a National Geographic Explorer, commercial photographer, and director based between Park City, Utah, and Cabo San Lucas. Over a sixteen-year relationship with National Geographic, he has worked across Mongolia, Nepal, Thailand, China, the Canadian Arctic, Haiti, and the Pacific and Central American coasts — becoming one of the platform's top-selling photographers three consecutive years running. He specializes in luxury hotel and resort campaigns, destination tourism, adventure lifestyle, automotive, and fine art, and brings expedition-level access and technical range to every production.

His breakthrough came through a photojournalism investigation on Cocos Island, a UNESCO World Heritage marine reserve off Costa Rica, where he documented illegal shark poaching operations and traced the trade all the way to Hong Kong and mainland China. The work was presented to the President of Costa Rica and led directly to the expansion of two national parks and the creation of one of the world's largest marine preserves. It earned him the National Geographic Society's first-ever Young Explorer Grant — and an invitation to join polar explorer Will Steger on a 60-day dogsled expedition across Ellesmere Island documenting climate change for a global audience.

Subsequent National Geographic work has taken him from the steppes of Mongolia — photographing Dr. Albert Lin's groundbreaking archaeological search for the tomb of Genghis Khan, later broadcast on the National Geographic Channel — to the host's chair of Extreme China, an adventure series requiring paragliding, cave diving, and rock climbing to reach locations inaccessible to most cameras. His Mongolia prints sold at Christie's auction. A private gallery show in Denver ended with his work acquired by the Denver Museum of Modern Art.

His most recent major commission — the 2025 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, shot at The Boca Raton resort in Florida — brought together aerial drone, underwater, architectural, and lifestyle photography across a multi-day production with ten Olympic and professional athletes. Jordan Chiles appeared on the issue's cover.

Based in Baja California Sur since 2015, Ben has built an unmatched knowledge of the peninsula's light, terrain, and coastline. His fine art book Baja Bound documents that territory. In March 2025 he exhibits at OZA International Gallery in San José del Cabo as part of Art Baja California, alongside works by Surrealist master Leonora Carrington.

"He is one of those rare people who can combine talent, technical skills, and engagement. Nothing in his artwork can be challenged on its achievement." — LinkedIn Recommendation