“I have learned that even without a shared language, it’s easy to let people know that their children are beautiful, their homes are lovely…and that their stories are worth sharing with the world” – Annie Griffiths

Experience the life of a photographer on assignment for National Geographic magazine—and meet a true pioneer who figured out her own way to balance work and family. One of National Geographic’s first female staff photographers, Annie Griffiths has worked on every continent except Antarctica, while also raising two children. Perhaps the only professional photographer ever to pack her camera gear in Pampers, she found a way to stay close to her kids without putting the brakes on her career—even if it meant bringing the two along with her on assignment in places as distant as the ruins of Petra in Jordan or the Galápagos Islands.

What some might see as an obstacle, Griffiths turned into an opportunity. “In some of these cultures, I’m a bizarre character—a woman from another world, traveling without a chaperone,” she explains. “The fact that I’m a mother provides common ground. I pull out pictures of my children, and that helps get me out of the realm of being just a foreigner.”

In this lavishly illustrated photographic journey, based on her popular memoir A Camera, Two Kids, and a Camel, Griffiths will share three decades of international travel, intimate moments, and touching stories, along with the art she created along the way. She will also discuss her work with Ripple Effect Images, a team of journalists focused on raising awareness and funding to empower women and girls in emerging nations around the world.

Recommended for grades 5–8.

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Hear Annie Griffiths narrate a slide show of her photographs.

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