Maria Stenzel is a freelance photojournalist specializing in environmental issues. Maria began her career in the 1980s, shooting feature stories about urban life for the Washington Post Magazine. She has covered twenty-five stories for National Geographic Magazine on history, culture, and conservation. She has traced the life of the poet Walt Whitman, traveled with migratory beekeepers, documented indigenous cultures in Siberia, Mexico, Bolivia, Borneo and Kenya, and photographed illegal logging in the Peruvian Amazon. Since 1996 she has regularly covered scientists' research in Antarctica. Maria graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in American Studies.