A Modern-Day Explorer
with a Camera

It started with a camera, a remote island, and a story no one had told yet. Ben Horton's first National Geographic work exposed illegal shark poaching operations between Costa Rica and China — work that earned him National Geographic's first-ever Young Explorer Grant and led directly to expanded ocean protections in Costa Rica. It was the first of four grants he would receive from the Society, funding subsequent investigations into juvenile shark habitats at Cocos Island, river sharks in Corcovado, and a 60-day dogsled expedition across Ellesmere Island with polar explorer Will Steger. What followed was twenty years of assignments across nine countries, three consecutive years as one of National Geographic's top-selling photographers, a television series on the Nat Geo International Channel, and prints acquired by Christie's Auction House.