Connecting to Nature’s Stories

If the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words is true, then 110,000 images should be worth 110 million words, or about 200 full copies of War and Peace. But when it comes to Wendy Shattil’s internationally acclaimed photography, it is impossible to attach an exact value to the priceless collection that she has recently donated to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.  

Over the course of her over 40-year career as a conservation photographer, Shattil – alongside her husband and colleague, Bob Rozinski – has sparked movements that have led to the protection of critical habitats of innumerable species throughout Colorado and beyond. “Conservation photography is more than just capturing images; it's about telling stories that motivate people to be aware and concerned,” Shattil said.  

In perhaps their most consequential project, Shattil and Rozinski spent the late 1980s and early 1990s photographing wildlife at Rocky Mountain Arsenal, a federally designated “Superfund” site that included what many experts have called “the most toxic square mile on Earth.” Established in 1942 by the U.S. Army to produce chemical weapons during World War II and subsequently leased to private companies to produce pesticides and herbicides, the site was later de-commissioned due to the prevalence of hazardous materials.  

Toxicity levels at a pond location known as Basin F were so high that a bird exposed to the water for just 25 seconds would likely die as a result. Even so, a variety of bird species, deer, rabbits and rodents made their homes in a thriving prairie ecosystem in the less-contaminated areas within the 23 square-mile boundary. 

Shattil and Rozinski’s involvement began when they received an unexpected call from two U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists who wanted to enlist their help to establish protections for the area. They were given a tour and fell in love with the site almost immediately. “As we drove away, Bob and I looked at each other. We had both decided in the first five minutes that we were going to do it,” Shattil said.  

The photographers spent the next six years documenting the Arsenal and its wildlife, capturing the imagination of the public through vivid images depicting a rich natural habitat occurring just outside the city metropolis. The subsequent cleanup and mitigation effort gained national and international attention, with Shattil and Rozinski’s photography featured in articles in National Geographic and Outside magazine, among many other publications.  

Finally, in 2004, Rocky Mountain Arsenal was designated as a National Wildlife Refuge. “We could confidently say that in two hours driving through Rocky Mountain Arsenal, you could see more wildlife diversity than in an entire day at Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park,” Shattil said.  

Today, nearly 500,000 people visit the Arsenal each year, where they can see more than 330 species, including bison, eagles, prairie dogs, burrowing owls and even black-footed ferrets right from their car.  

Shattil’s collection will benefit the Museum by providing a strong story-telling platform that complements research on biodiversity in the region. In addition, since the photographs were taken over a span of more than 40 years and because they are coupled with metadata that records where and when the photo was taken, the images can shed light on species distribution over time.  

Dr. Garth Spellman, director of zoology at the Museum, believes that one day artificial intelligence algorithms could be trained to extrapolate additional information from the photos that is not readily apparent to the human eye. “I see great promise in the future because we can train artificial intelligence algorithms to look at photos and potentially identify changes [in biodiversity],” he said.  

The Archives Department at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science is working diligently behind the scenes to catalog the recent donation, which includes approximately 70,000 slides and 40,000 digital photographs. However, the images could take years to fully process and integrate into the Museum’s extensive collection of records spanning its 125-year history – which if laid out end-to-end, would measure nearly a mile in length.  

The Archives Department consists of three full-time staff members who manage a climate-controlled warehouse for storing documents, along with a refrigerated space held at 45 degrees Fahrenheit for print images and a freezer space held at 0 degrees Fahrenheit for film, which is where the Shattil collection will be housed. 

Museum archivists serve as conduits to the organization’s institutional memory, whereby they acquire, manage, process, preserve and provide access to records that have historical importance, including images, emails, films, audio recordings, publications and more. “You name it, we probably have that recorded form of history,” said Laura Uglean Jackson, digital archivist at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. 

The Archives Department plans to make the Shattil collection accessible to all through an upgraded digital asset management system that is searchable and publicly available. Uglean Jackson foresees Shattil’s images being used for a variety of scientific and educational purposes. “The collection is going to be used widely and by all sorts of different types of users, from the elementary school student that needs something for their assignment to organizations that are trying to improve climate change,” she said.  

Shattil hopes her photography and her donation will have a lasting impact by motivating people to take action on behalf of the wild places they hold most dear: “All of this doesn’t just document wildlife. It tells stories. And the stories connect people to the natural world and hopefully create a deeper understanding of why conservation is important.”  

Interested in going further? Watch Shattil's 2024 presentation at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science for more stories and details about their incredible photographic legacy:

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