Minnesota native and renowned photographer Jim Brandenburg has died, according to a post on his Facebook page.
The post said that he passed away peacefully in his Medina home on Friday surrounded by his loving family. He was 79.
“Jim was being treated for anaplastic thyroid carcinoma the past 7 months, with additional complications from pneumonia this year,” the post said.
Jim Brandenburg posing with the Lifetime Achievement Award from National Geographic for his worldwide images of nature and wildlife. (Courtesy of Judy Brandenburg)
Brandenburg was preceded in death by his son on Feb. 24, 2025, the post said.
“Please hold his wife Judy, daughter Heidi and her husband Nels Pierson, grandchildren Olivia, Liam and Lindsey, and all those who loved Jim in your hearts by taking a walk in nature, looking up at the clouds and feel the transformation of Jim’s energy back into the Universe.”
More details about a memorial are to come, the post said.
In 2023, Brandenburg won the National Geographic’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
“I have been so very fortunate over the years to have received some precious and treasured awards around the world, but this one is unique for me because it is from my peers — some of the finest photographic talent in the world,” Brandenburg, 77, said at the time in a statement.
Only five other National Geographic photographers have received the award over the years.
Brandenburg last contributed to the magazine in 2016 with his mega photo essay “93 Days of Spring.” He has been part of the National Geographic family for some 50 years.
Brandenburg is perhaps best known for his photographs of wolves in Minnesota and the Arctic.
Brandenburg was born and raised in Luverne, Minnesota, among the region’s farms and prairies. After studying at Worthington Community College, he went on to attend the University of Minnesota Duluth, where he majored in art history while working for WDIO-TV.
He left UMD in 1970 without graduating to travel Canada’s Arctic and shoot film of Inuit families with Duluth pathologist and anthropologist Art Aufderheide. The two spent six weeks making a film documentary of Inuit people living a nomadic lifestyle. Brandenburg subsequently was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Minnesota.
Brandenburg returned to Worthington and began working as a photojournalist for the Worthington Daily Globe. He also began submitting work to the National Geographic Society as a freelance photographer, and in 1978, he became a contract photographer for National Geographic Magazine.
He has twice been named Magazine Photographer of the Year by the National Press Photographers Association.
In 2010, four of his wildlife photos were included among the top 40 nature photographs of all time by the International League of Conservation Photographers. The collection includes some of Brandenburg’s best-loved photos: a white wolf leaping between ice floes in the Canadian Arctic, a gray wolf peering among trees in northern Minnesota, an oryx on a sand dune in Namibia, and bison in Minnesota’s Blue Mounds State Park.
Brandenburg also was the recipient of the World Achievement Award from the United Nations Environmental Programme in Stockholm in recognition of his using nature photography to raise public awareness for the environment.
Brandenburg also won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the North American Nature Photography Association.
“I am now back in a snowy Minnesota feeling extremely honored and a bit breathless contemplating it all,” Brandenburg added on his latest award. “I am especially appreciative and beyond grateful for all the family and friends that helped pave the way. This is not possible without that kind of support.”
Brandenburg, also a filmmaker and environmentalist, is the author of more than 19 books, including Brother Wolf.
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