Washington (CNN) -- Joel Sartore's photograph of gentle Bryn is a permanent record, but she has been lost forever.





The Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit died in 2008 shortly after the picture was taken. She was the last of her kind.





Sartore, who has worked for the National Geographic Society for two decades, called the brief shooting session with the doomed rabbit a "solemn occasion," knowing she would not be around much longer.





Bryn is one of dozens of animals profiled in a new book, "Rare: Portraits of America's Endangered Species," by the award-winning photographer. See more portraits





Sartore, a Nebraska native, traveled the country to get glimpses of 69 species -- red wolves, Hawaiian orchids, hellbenders (a prehistoric-looking salamander), and sea turtles -- all now or once hanging on the verge of extinction.





As the United States celebrated Earth Day on Thursday, Sartore talked with CNN recently about his passion for raising awareness about preserving the variety of animal and plant life before it is too late.





CNN: This may be the only chance for most readers to see these beautiful, rare creatures.





Joel Sartore: Whatever press these animals get is really minimal. Even some of the animals we call "charismatic mega-fauna" -- like whooping cranes, California condors -- they don't get enough press, so can you imagine the Pyne's ground-plum or the Mount Graham red squirrel -- what odds to they have to ever get even their 15 minutes of fame nationally?





The goal is really to get people first aware of these always amazing plants and animals and to get them to care, before it's too late. A lot of the things that are going away are very small, little plants and invertebrates.





CNN: This book expanded on a National Geographic magazine feature from several years ago. Why do an entire book?





Sartore: I was always interested in endangered species, mainly why we let it happen. If we won't save our own plants and animals, how can we expect poorer nations to do that? So it's always been a bit of an outrage to me that we can let things disappear into extinction.





CNN: You decided not to shoot your subjects in the wild, in their natural habitats. Instead you chose simple indoor backgrounds. Was that a practical or artistic consideration?





Sartore: I needed to drive the point home that the small things are as important, if not more so, than the big things, and I figured by putting them on black and white backgrounds, it would make a rare butterfly as "impactful" as a polar bear. It is a great equalizer, and I tried to capture the intimacy and essence of each plant or animal.





It's really hard to show something like an Iowa Pleistocene snail in a dramatic way when it's the size of a pencil lead and it lives in a kind of in a crack in a rock. If I shot in the wild, I would have had to pass on a lot of small creatures because I couldn't figure out a way to make the picture sexy enough.





CNN: Does taking them out of their natural habitats remove some of the connection with the reader, that these animals exist in a larger wild environment?





Sartore: That really wasn't a concern. I'm desperate to get somebody to care, right now. I have to make as dramatic a picture as I can. The American public cares a lot more about what's on TV and the price at the pump. That's sometimes all they care about, so my job is to get people to stop and think in any way I can that we're talking about a matter of life and death. There's such a disconnect now between humans and the natural world, and it gets worse every year.





CNN: Many of these rare animals exist near human habitation, accessible to people who might want to seek them out.





Sartore: That's true, but it's sad the disconnect from nature is so great that guys like me
where is joel sartore from? where does sartore's work appear? Where is the native from?
Nebraska "Rare: Portraits of America's Endangered Species," Nebraska
question: where is joel sartore from?, answer: Nebraska | question: where does sartore's work appear?, answer: "Rare: Portraits of America's Endangered Species," | question: Where is the native from?, answer: Nebraska