Artist Statement:
I am honored to help chronicle Project Puffin, which conducted the first successful restoration of a seabird to an island, on Eastern Egg Rock in Maine. Puffins were wiped out there by hunters in the 1880s.

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 In 1973, project founder Steve Kress began translocating puffin chicks to Maine from Newfoundland and raised them, until they fledged. His team put up decoys and mirrors on Egg Rock to convince returning mature birds that the rock was “home.” Puffins began breeding anew there in 1981.

 

Today, there are more than 1,400 pairs of puffins across several Maine islands. The techniques have informed more than 850 seabird restoration projects around the world.

 I hope my images help people appreciate the natural gifts around us and do their part to preserve them. The images also reflect a personal transformation. My photographic interests originally centered around sports, when I thought eagles played football in Philadelphia.  

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Biography:

Derrick Z. Jackson is a Pulitzer Prize commentary finalist and award-winning photographer. He is co-author and photographer, with Stephen Kress, of Project Puffin: The Improbable Quest to Bring a Beloved Seabird Back to Egg Rock (Yale University Press); and The Puffin Plan: Restoring Seabirds to Egg Rock and Beyond (Tumblehome Books). The Puffin Plan won first-prize in teen nonfiction in 2021 from the Independent Book Publishers Association.