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.

by proustnature