Austfonna Ice Cap melting during the summer months in Svalbard, Norway
beech branches over a lake
a waterfall
camel thorn trees Namibia
a herd of African elephants
a mountain in Wood-Tikchik State Park
Gentian Pool in Yellowstone National Park
water lillies
seagulls flying out to sea at sunrise in Big Sur, California
a ridge of rusty volcanic rhyolite at Landmannalaugar, Iceland
penguins on an iceberg in Antarctica
lake dallol in Ethiopia
a coral reef in the Red Sea off Saudi Arabia
the Hraunfossar waterfall, white with silt, in autumn, Iceland
the wilderness of Wood-Tikchik State Park, Alaska
a yak herd returns to camp in the evening, Wakhan, Afghanistan
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The Austfonna ice cap melts during the summer months in Svalbard, Norway.
Photograph by Paul Nicklen, Nat Geo Image Collection

These Arresting Nature Photos Look Like Paintings Brought to Life

A curation of photographs from our archives are an invitation to look at the world through the eyes of an artist.

ByAlexa Keefe
April 20, 2018

Photographers, much like landscape painters, are seekers of light. They stake out a scene and then wait patiently for the moment when the sun sets desert dunes on fire while casting a stand of camel thorn trees in shadow; or when clouds floating above an Alaskan lake are reflected perfectly in the glassy water below. Textures, colors, and forms of our natural world are brought to life.

We curated a collection of photographs from our archives that both transcend literal interpretations of what we see and also invite us to look at the world through the eyes of an artist.

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