The World’s Most Adventurous Women 2019

“LAST FALL, Mittermeier, a Mexican-born marine biologist turned photographer, was shooting some 50 orcas hunting a school of herring in a fjord in Norway when a pod of 50-foot humpback whales passed just feet away. “There is a part of me that wants to push through fear to get images nobody else has,” she says. “So I know that if I am a little terrified, I am probably in the right spot. That is what swimming with wild orcas is all about—a mix of terror and glee.”

It’s that spirit that has helped Mittermeier, 52, pioneer the conservation photography movement through her iconic photos of indigenous cultures and ocean ecosystems, and led her in 2014 to cofound SeaLegacy, a conservation society that uses visual storytelling to create positive change. Two years later, Mittermeier released a photo and video of a starving polar bear struggling to find food and they went viral, reaching an estimated 2.5 billion people in two weeks. The outpouring of emotion spurred a conversation about climate change—exactly as she had hoped.”