Chris Rainier is a documentary photographer and filmmaker and a National Geographic Explorer. In the early 1980s, Chris was Ansel Adams’ last photographic assistant and helped Adams with the use of his photography to help conserve many of the American National Parks. In 2002, he was awarded the Lowell Thomas Award by The Explorers Club, and in 2014, he was elected a Fellow of The 
Royal Geographical Society for his work in cultural preservation. Chris was a National Geographic Society Fellow as director of the All Roads Photography Program and co-director of the Enduring Voices Project, both focused on the preservation of traditional cultural knowledge. He has led expeditions to all seven continents and the North Pole and was one of several skydivers to set the world record for skydiving over Mount Everest. In 2000, Rainier led an expedition by camel into the heart of the Sahara Desert. Chris’ photographs and books are archived in the collections of museums, including The International Center of Photography New York, The George Eastman House Museum
in Rochester, New York, The Australian National Museum, The United Nations, UBC Anthropology Museum in Canada, The Field Museum Chicago, the National Geographic Society, and The Royal Geographical Society. He is the co-founder and CEO of The Cultural Sanctuaries Foundation, a global charitable foundation focused on protecting traditional culture and land.