How to Get Published in National Geographic- #177: Lana Tannir | Creators

·1 hr 3 min·5 clips

After years of doubt, Lana saw the Northern Lights dance across the sky, her eyelashes freezing as she photographed them.

The episode is an interview with Lana Tannir, a National Geographic Explorer and photographer focused on conservation. Host Samuel Donner guides her through a chronological narrative of her life and career. Lana begins by describing how her parents fled the war in Yugoslavia, settling in Germany where she developed an early love for nature and photography. She discusses her teenage interests, including reading 'His Dark Materials' which inspired her Arctic fascination, and pursuing acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York. After film school in New York, she felt burnt out and moved back to Germany, spending two and a half years unsure of her direction. She reconnected with photography by building a portfolio, driven by childhood admiration for National Geographic. Her breakthrough came when she traveled alone to Finland at age 24 to photograph the Northern Lights, a dream since childhood, which she later published online. She then visited Iceland, capturing icebergs, and posted those photos on BoredPanda, leading to her first National Geographic publication via an editor in Serbia. Lana also undertook a project at an orphanage in Mongolia, where she had to earn the children's trust, and later exhibited the photos to raise funds. Another key project involved documenting plastic pollution in bird nests on Helgoland island in Germany, which she pitched to National Geographic after a local magazine rejection, resulting in a seven-page spread in 2021. She now works on a long-term harbor porpoise conservation project funded by a National Geographic grant. Throughout, Lana emphasizes themes of persistence, following curiosity, and the importance of storytelling for marginalized communities. The episode concludes with her advice to aspiring photographers to pursue passions without waiting for external validation.

As heard by us

A photographer prepares for a solo Arctic challenge after an online post catches a National Geographic editor's attention.

Lana Tannir's path to National Geographic begins with a gamble: she posts her photographs of Icelandic icebergs online, hoping someone will notice. An editor in Serbia does, inviting her to write a short article for the local National Geographic website.

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Why you'd press play

Press play when you need proof that a self-assigned project can open an unlikely door.

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