The "Wildlife Photographer of the Year" exhibit opens this weekend and presents the beauty of nature and the challenges that go along with it, with 100 award-winning photographs taken by professionals and amateurs from all over the world.
Academy President and CEO Scott Cooper describes the exhibit as extraordinary.
“The collection is organized annually by the Natural History Museum in London going on since 1965. Not in all that time has it ever come to the East Coast of America,” he said.
The exhibit is divided into four themes of nature: behavior, urban wildlife, animal portraits and photojournalism.
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"The subjects span every aspect of our natural world that you can imagine: air, land, sea, mammals, fish, it's all there. What unites all of this is the ability to tell a truly compelling story,” Cooper added.
The exhibit was created before the pandemic hit, and the struggles in nature are much like the struggles the world is facing now.
“This exhibition to us is as important now as it has been in the last 50 plus years of its tenure,” he said.
Being one with nature right now is a good thing, Cooper believes.
"I hope people walk away from this exhibition feeling, knowing, remembering just the sheer joy that the natural world can bring us.”
Cooper, reassuring the public of the safety of the museum during the pandemic, says it's cleaned throughout the day, and masks are required for all visitors.
The exhibit is on display from Sept. 5 through February 2021.