Photographer and author Chris Rainier presents “Cultures on the Edge: A Journey into Indigenous Ways of Being” at the Lensic Performing Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 1.

For over 40 years, Rainier has traveled the world documenting traditional societies that live on the edge of change into modernity. From the isolated jungles of New Guinea to the Bedouin of the Sahara Desert, to the mask rituals of India and West Africa, Rainier has lived with and documented cultures with rich visual traditions that live on in his photography. As the world rapidly changes under the pressure of modernity, Rainier will take the audience on a journey into how many of the world’s traditional societies are adapting and maintaining their sacred cultural rituals.

In 2002, he was awarded the Lowell Thomas Award by the Explorers Club for his efforts on cultural preservation, and in 2014 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society of London UK – specializing in cultural preservation.

His photography has been featured in numerous publications including National Geographic, BBC, The New York Times and Time Magazine. Rainier has photographed global culture, conflict, famine and war in such places as Somalia, Sarajevo/Bosnia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Cambodia and Iraq for Time Magazine and for NPR.