At the Blue Earth Alliance's Collaborations for Cause conference, documentary photographer Natalie Fobes sat down with PhotoWings to offer inspirational stories from her career, as well as her insights into the photographic medium. No stranger to the power of photography to create change, she may be best remembered for her harrowing coverage of the Exxon Valdez disaster in the pages of National Geographic. Fobes founded the Blue Earth Alliance along with Phil Borges in 1996 to act as an aid for documentary photographers who seek to create positive change through their storytelling.

For this segment, Natalie Fobes shares some haunting memories from the Exxon Valdez spill. Despite the hard times, however, she makes it clear that photography can also be a vehicle to wonderful experiences. “The good and the bad are part of being a photographer, and I would never trade that for another line of work,” she explains.

PhotoWings' mission is to highlight and help facilitate the power of photography to influence the world. We help photography to be better understood, created, utilized, seen, and saved.