The “Wild Supreme” exhibit at 340 Madison Avenue, New York City is of 8 large photographs of African wildlife taken by Beverly Joubert. The permanent exhibit is arranged by RXR Realty, the sustainable conservationists who are presenting their collection of these stunning large-size photographs printed on canvas. Dereck and Beverly Joubert are award winning filmmakers and conservationists. The winners of six Emmys for their wildlife films.
The photographic exhibit opened on June 6th, 2012, in the limestone lobby of the RXR office building at 44th Street in Manhattan. The Jouberts travelled from Botswana for the event and spoke of their work saving the big cats of Africa to the assembled crowd. Explaining that the lions, leopard and cheetah that they have filmed and photographed on Duba Plains, Selinda and Zarafa on the Selinda Reserve in Botswana, and ol Donyo Lodge and Mara Plains in Kenya are now in danger of becoming extinct.
“The Big Cats Initiative founded by us with the National Geographic is a plea for your help to save the wild cats from extinction. Trophy hunters are killing over 600 male lions a year” the Jouberts explained to a shocked audience. “The images shown here today are all made on select game reserves in Africa, owned and managed by Great Plains Conservation, a safari company established to increase and protect wild places. Great Plains Conservation is a Joubert and partners initiative that protects 1.5 million acres of land by working with communities and governments to establish corridors, save lions and other big cats and enrich biospheres in both Botswana and Kenya.”
The opening night, June 6th, was an exciting event, with a New York crowd attending the cocktail reception hosted by RXR. Eight large images by Beverly Joubert, each over 6 feet square on stretched canvas, were hung in the lobby. “Wild Supreme” a large photograph of a Duba lion, set the color tone for the orange and yellow images of wildlife in the permanent exhibit. The silent auction that night raised money for the Big Cats Initiative bigcatsinitiative.org
Africa was in the heart of Manhattan that night, where the Jouberts plea for help to save the big cats caused an uproar around the city. The Jouberts film “The Unlikely Leopard” will be shown on Nat Geo WILD TV on July 15th in the USA.
