Best known for his aerial photography, George Steinmetz has a restless curiosity for the unknown: remote landscapes, our changing climate, and how we can meet the ever-expanding food needs of humanity. George has explored subjects ranging from the remotest stretches of Arabia’s Empty Quarter to the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest.

Since 1986, George has completed more than 40 major photo essays for National Geographic and 25 stories for GEO magazine in Germany. His expeditions to the Sahara and Gobi deserts have been featured in separate National Geographic Explorer programs.

Born in California in 1957, George graduated from Stanford University with a degree in Geophysics. He began his career in photography after hitchhiking through Africa for 28 months. He spent fifteen years exploring the world’s deserts, mainly while piloting a motorized paraglider.

His current projects are documenting climate change and the global food supply, primarily with professional drones. His long-term project “Feed the Planet” was exhibited in 2022 at the Horizons Zingst festival in Germany and Visa pour l'image in Perpignan, France (Global Fisheries). He is the author of five books, African Air, Empty Quarter, Desert Air, New York Air, and The Human Planet: Earth at the Dawn of the Anthropocene.