Difference Makers

This series of portraits by Isaac Hernandez honors social, cultural and sustainability leaders, ranging from community activists to internationally known figures. They share a universal drive to make a difference, with unique expressions. These portraits, an ongoing passion project spanning more than a decade, were taken to accompany published interviews with these fascinating champions. This collection of inspiring leaders is an open and expanding investigation of contribution, an offering to acknowledge the possibly infinite. Ordinary people accomplish the extraordinary, including those who formed an integral core for the birth of a global movement: Selma Rubin, Paul Rellis, Marc McGinnes, and Bud Bottoms, who participated to launch Earth Day in Santa Barbara, protect the last stretch of empty coastline in California (the Gaviota Coast), develop the concept and study of environmental law, and create a host of nonprofits. These sustainability pioneers share pages with leaders like Andy Lipkis (TreePeople), Michael Pollan (author, Food Rules), Sylvia Earle (oceanographer), Paul Erlich (author The Dominant Animal), Roberta Salazar (Birds and Rivers), and Harold Powell (Telios Environmental), as well as better known personalities, like authors Amy Tan, Isabel Allende, and Gore Vidal, actors Javier Bardem, Antonio Banderas and Will Smith, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.