Dana Romanoff
Dana Romanoff is an internationally acclaimed photojournalist and filmmaker dedicated to making a difference in the world. Whether she is sleeping on animal skins in Ethiopia, hunting with tribes in the jungles of West Papua, driving around with gang bangers in the U.S. or summiting 19,000 foot peaks with adaptive climbers, her work is intimate, layered and soulful and creates relationships and reveals inner lives. Her award-winning imagery, films and commercials foster understanding and create change.
She has received prestigious awards and recognition for tackling significant social issues including her recent film “Noah" which was featured on Upworthy, The Guardian, The Atlantic, RYOT and National Geographic Digital Showcase and won awards at the 2017 W3 Awards, Telly Awards and Communicator Awards and the 2017 Spirit of Activism Special Jury Award at the Crested Butte Film Festival. As co-Director and Director of Photography of National Park Experience, an independent film series celebrating diversity and youth in the National Parks, her documentaries have been broadcasted on PBS and Smithsonian Channel. “Confluence” a feature length doc released in 2018 is currently winning awards touring festivals and universities. Another short film, “Canyon Song” won the 2017 Director’s Choice Award at Flagstaff Mountain Festival, 2017 Award of Merit in the Best Shorts Competition and the 2017 Social Awareness Award at Wasatch Mountain Film Festival. Dana's work is syndicated with Getty Reportage and she is a Getty Global Assignments Photographer, Blue Earth Awarded Photographer and a Director working with Stept Studios and Blue Chalk Media. Her clients include National Geographic Magazine, New York Times, Esquire, Forbes, GQ, Men's Journal, National Geographic Traveler, The Sunday Times, USA Today, UNICEF, and many others.
In 2019, she directed a short film for Budweiser, “For The Fathers Who Stepped Up”, which has been viewed 3.3M times on the Budweiser YouTube channel only.
3 words to describe Nature?
Connected. Necessary. Healing
3 things Nature taught you?
Nature is one of the greatest teachers.
I’ve learned that nature doesn’t need us, but we need nature.
That all living things are connected.
That we should cooperate, not compete with nature.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
My family home on a tiny lake in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.
An incredible waterfall pouring from the jungles of West Papua, Indonesia into the Indian ocean.
A blooming field of wildflowers surrounded by the Rocky Mountain FlatIrons along the Mesa Trail in my backyard in Boulder, Colorado.
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?
Humbled and inconsequential
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
A sense of security
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
I haven’t seen that many volcanos!
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?
Reflective and grateful
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?
Energized and on alert
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?
Uneasy. Howling wind makes any situation more epic whether it be dodging shopping carts while walking through a parking lot or precariously balanced on a 14,000 ft ridge.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
I would probably say Forrest. A person’s true nature emerges in the deep woods.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
A 10. On a high level, without a healthy earth and nature we are in big trouble. As an individual, my mental and physical health is very closely linked to my time spent in nature.
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
I remember my first backcountry camping experience near a lake in the Adirondack Mountains. I had heard the warnings about bears and was very aware of the food I was carrying in my backpack and needed to suspend in a bear bag from the towering pine trees. That night in my tent I was on high alert. Every branch that snapped I was sure was a bear. Feeding my anxiety was a deep growl that repeated for many hours. When I could not take the fear any longer I screamed out and awoke my friends, more experienced backpackers, in the next tent over. They listened cautiously until they deducted that it was most definitely a bullfrog.
Spencer Bailey
SPENCER BAILEY is the former editorial director of Surface Media and editor-in-chief of Surface magazine. He has contributed to The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, and Bloomberg Businessweek, and worked at The Daily Beast, Vanity Fair, and Esquire. Bailey wrote and edited the book Tham ma da: The Adventurous Interiors of Paola Navone, which was published by Pointed Leaf Press in 2016.
At Surface, Bailey has interviewed hundreds of leading architects, artists, designers, and others, including David Adjaye, Tadao Ando, Thom Browne, Zaha Hadid, Frank Gehry, Ian Schrager, Philippe Starck, and Kanye West. Bailey was integral to the launches of the Design Dialogues live conversation series, of which he is a frequent moderator, and the Surface Studios brand marketing unit. As editorial director of Surface Media, he oversees the company’s content across a range of digital and print platforms. During three years of reporting for The New York Times Magazine, from 2011 to 2014, he interviewed authors, celebrities, politicians, and cultural figures such as Al Sharpton, Tony Hawk, Rodney King, and Cyndi Lauper for a “How To ...” column.
Bailey is a trustee of the Noguchi Museum in Queens, New York. He also serves on the New York honorary committee of the L’Ecole jewelry-making school, which is supported by Van Cleef & Arpels. He was on the juries of the 2016 James Beard Restaurant Design Awards, the 2016 Rado Star Prize, and the 2017 Swarovski Designers of the Future Award. Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, he is a graduate of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
3 words to describe Nature?
Reflective. Relaxing. Restorative
3 things Nature taught you?
To appreciate it more.
To slow down.
The importance of quiet.
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Francie’s Cabin, in Breckenridge, Colorado.
Katsura Imperial Villa, in Kyoto, Japan.
The Noguchi Museum, in Queens, New York.
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Meditative
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Curious
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Anxious
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Like I should probably take a photo of it with my iPhone.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Excited
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Depends on the context.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Mountain
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
One night, when I was probably around age 8, my brothers and I decided to “camp out” in our family’s yard in suburban Denver. We read some scary stories that night. I remember hearing thunder in the distance. Shortly after falling asleep, we were awakened by a hail storm. A lightning bolt cracked above, and almost immediately we noticed that my twin brother’s hair was standing straight on end. The lightning had struck the tree next to us. We decided to wimp out and rush indoors. That was probably a wise decision.