Morgan Heim

Wildlife photojournalist and filmmaker Morgan (Mo) Heim raises a camera for one purpose – to capture moments in an animal’s life that will make us consider what that life means. Inevitably, those stories involve people as much as wildlife.

Mo originally planned on becoming a marine biologist and worked for years for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration on things like orca surveys, salmon restoration and the Elwha Dam Removal project. She later earned a Master’s in environmental journalism and is now a senior fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP). She has worked on two National Geographic granted projects on urban coyotes and deer migration, was the 2018 Philip Hyde Grant Recipient and 2015 Fund for Environmental Journalism recipient for her work on documenting the environmental impacts of international drug trafficking organizations on national forests. Her films have premiered at Banff, Telluride Mountain Film, Adventure Film and DC Environmental Film Fest. The short, The Snow Guardian, received second place in the Films4Climate competition at COP 22, subsequently going viral on National Geographic’s Short Film Showcase with more than 10 million views. You can find her work in Smithsonian, Nature Conservancy Magazine, National Geographic Traveler, Audubon, bioGraphic and Newsweek among others. In 2018, her conservation photography was honored in both the Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Big Picture Natural World Photography Competitions.

She resides in Astoria, Oregon, a little city by the sea, with her husband Philipp and dog-sidekick Javier.