Joubert's 'Illuminations' brings Africa to Park City

Beverly Joubert's photography exhibition "Illuminations of Africa's Wildlife: Its Beauty, Its Struggle to Survive" is not just a collection of stunning black and white color images of lions, cheetahs, elephants and rhinoceros -- it is a call to action.

"What we are dealing with right now is a battle over these animals because we are losing them at an alarming rate," said Joubert's husband, Dereck, during a conference call with The Park Record from their home in Botswana, South Africa. "We lose five lions a day, a rhino every seven hours and elephants at a rate of five an hour. There is a massive decline, and we, at the risk of our lives, do whatever we can about that.

"We thought we need to do a fine-art exhibition about these animals, largely because when these animals disappear, we will lose a lot and we need to illuminate exactly what we will lose when that happens," he said.

The exhibit, which will open at the Kimball Art Center with a member reception on Wednesday, Jan. 20, focuses on the beauty of the animals.

"It is exciting to bring Africa to North America and to enlighten people of what we have," Beverly said. "I think, too often, that people don't realize we have an incredible variety of animals and unfolding stories. This is a way for us to discuss the important and difficult issues."

Elephant Conservation Talk at ABC Home in New York

On the 24th March 2014, Beverly and Dereck Joubert gave a talk about elephant conservation at ABC Home in New York at Beverly’s Exhibition ‘The African Elephant’. Co-presented by National Geographic the evening was called ‘Living with Elephants: Stories from the Wild’.  The exhibition and talk was an exploration of these deeply intelligent and soulful animals and the tragic effects of wildlife poaching.  Beverly and Dereck discussed why now, more than ever, the African Elephant needs our protection.

https://www.abchome.com/beverly-joubert-explorer-in-residence/

“Wild Supreme” at 340 Madison Avenue, New York City

The “Wild Supreme” exhibit at 340 Madison Avenue, New York City is of 8 large photographs of African wildlife taken by Beverly Joubert. The permanent exhibit is arranged by RXR Realty, the sustainable conservationists who are presenting their collection of these stunning large-size photographs printed on canvas. Dereck and Beverly Joubert are award winning filmmakers and conservationists. The winners of six Emmys for their wildlife films.

The photographic exhibit opened on June 6th, 2012, in the limestone lobby of the RXR office building at 44th Street in Manhattan. The Jouberts travelled from Botswana for the event and spoke of their work saving the big cats of Africa to the assembled crowd. Explaining that the lions, leopard and cheetah that they have filmed and photographed on Duba Plains, Selinda and Zarafa on the Selinda Reserve in Botswana, and ol Donyo Lodge and Mara Plains in Kenya are now in danger of becoming extinct.

“The Big Cats Initiative founded by us with the National Geographic is a plea for your help to save the wild cats from extinction. Trophy hunters are killing over 600 male lions a year” the Jouberts explained to a shocked audience.  “The images shown here today are all made on select game reserves in Africa, owned and managed by Great Plains Conservation, a safari company established to increase and protect wild places. Great Plains Conservation is a Joubert and partners initiative that protects 1.5 million acres of land by working with communities and governments to establish corridors, save lions and other big cats and enrich biospheres in both Botswana and Kenya.”

The opening night, June 6th, was an exciting event, with a New York crowd attending the cocktail reception hosted by RXR. Eight large images by Beverly Joubert, each over 6 feet square on stretched canvas, were hung in the lobby. “Wild Supreme” a large photograph of a Duba lion, set the color tone for the orange and yellow images of wildlife in the permanent exhibit. The silent auction that night raised money for the Big Cats Initiative bigcatsinitiative.org

Africa was in the heart of Manhattan that night, where the Jouberts plea for help to save the big cats caused an uproar around the city. The Jouberts film “The Unlikely Leopard” will be shown on Nat Geo WILD TV on July 15th in the USA.

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Lions & Leopards, The Work of Dereck and Beverly Joubert

National Geographic Explorers Dereck and Beverly Joubert have spent over two decades documenting the lives of lions and leopards. Living in a tent or out of a survey vehicle, they spend months at a time in the field following and observing these top predators. Stunning footage and intimate fine art prints offer a compelling and poetic case for stewardship of these threatened species.