Award Winning Nature Photographer to exhibit at Everglades National Park

Date: April 30, 2012
Contact: General Park Information, 305-242-7700
Contact: Media Contact - Linda Friar, 305-242-7714

Paul Marcellini, an award-winning Miami nature photographer will be displaying a new series of work, called Meet Your Neighbors in the Ernest Coe Visitor's Center of Everglades National Park for the month of May 2012.

This series depicts native flora and fauna of South Florida on a white background, done in a field studio. The pure white background takes out the surroundings and forces the viewer to focus on the unique subjects at hand. This allows the small details and intricacies to be noticed.

Marcellini's south Florida work is part of a larger collection of images. Meet Your Neighbors is a global photographic project dedicated to reconnecting people with the wildlife on their own doorsteps - and enriching their lives in the process. These creatures and plants are vital to people: they represent the first, and for some, the only contact with wild nature we have. Yet too often they are overlooked, undervalued.

As Aldo Leopold once said, "The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, "What good is it?" If the land mechanism as a whole is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not."

As a resident of south Florida and neighbor to the Everglades, Marcellini has been fascinated by many of these small animals since childhood when his love affiar with the natural areas of the south Florida began. Marcellini hopes that these images can help create the same inspiration and appreciation of nature for others.