Convincing Images

Imagine a dream National Geographic assignment: photographing America’s Gulf Coast from the tip of Florida to Brownsville, Texas. Who could resist traveling the coastline and capturing stunning images of sunsets and coastal beaches? But what Joel Sartore saw on his second assignment for the magazine turned out to be much more than pretty pictures for a national publication. He walked along debris-strewn beaches near Galveston. Recalls Sartore, "I saw dead dolphins and garbage that included medical waste and plastic bottles from around the world."