We Don't Protect Mountains FROM People. We Support People WHO PROTECT Mountains.
Traditional conservation builds walls: keep people out, restrict access, preserve nature by separation.
Mountain communities have protected these landscapes for generations, often at great personal cost. They hold wisdom about ecosystems that scientists are only beginning to understand. They're not the problem. They're the solution. Our work documents their stories, builds business partnerships that create opportunity, and proves that when communities prosper through stewardship, everyone wins.
Communities, Not Beneficiaries
Mountain communities aren't recipients of aid. They're partners in this work. We document their wisdom, share their stories, and build partnerships that honor their knowledge while creating sustainable livelihoods that protect both culture and ecology.
When Communities Prosper, Landscapes Flourish
Our business models reward guardianship rather than extraction. By making preservation more profitable than exploitation, we prove that protecting fragile ecosystems creates opportunity for everyone. Preservation doesn't require sacrifice; it creates prosperity.
Sustainability Requires Revenue
Purpose without profit is charity that eventually runs dry. Profit without purpose is extraction. We're proving you can do both: tell stories sustainably while supporting the communities within them. Companies can measure success by the communities they empower and the landscapes they preserve.
We empower the people who protect the world's great peaks, proving that when mountain communities prosper, their landscapes thrive, and the planet prospers with them.
Empower the People. Preserve the Peaks. Prosper Together.
Photography. Expeditions. Guardianship.
We document mountain communities through three interconnected approaches. Each one tells stories, creates opportunity, and proves that prosperity and preservation grow together.
Storytelling That Funds the Stories Being Told
Our limited-edition prints document real communities, real landscapes, real partnerships. When you acquire a piece, you share a story with everyone who sees it. 80% of every sale supports the artists and preservation programs within it.
Guardians fund programs directly while gaining access to expedition journals, community updates, and early releases. Your membership supports mountain voices globally.
Travel with our photographers to meet the communities you support. Document alongside award-winning filmmakers. Understand the work by being part of it.
We Started With a Simple Observation
The world's most beautiful places are protected by people who deserve our partnership, not our pity. Planet 5 exists to provide economic alternatives to exploitation.
People. Preservation. Profits.
We don't protect mountains from people. We support the people who protect mountains. Mountain communities have safeguarded these landscapes for generations. They're not the problem. They're the solution.
A For-Profit Company With Purpose
We're transparent about being for-profit. 100% of Guardian fees fund preservation partnerships. 80% of art sales support artists and programs. Sustainable business models protect landscapes better than donations.
Become Part of Something Larger
When you collect with Planet 5, you become a partner in preservation. Your membership directly funds the mountain communities who've been stewarding these places for generations.
100%
of Guardian membership dues fund preservation
Every dollar from your Guardian membership goes directly to programs supporting mountain communities. We invest in coffee corridors, forest preservation, water protection, and economic partnerships that make preservation more profitable than destruction.
Become a Guardian
Coffee & Wildlife Corridor - Nepal
Our flagship project connects three Himalayan national parks across 92,000 hectares by making forest protection more profitable than deforestation. The communities prosper, the mountains flourish, everyone wins.
Our Lens on Mountain Impact
The 5P Framework is how we tell every story, create every piece of content, and evaluate every partnership. Every photograph captures not just beauty, but the complete narrative of mountain preservation.
From Himalayan coffee farmers to Kenyan wildlife corridors, every image in our collection tells a complete story through this lens. Beauty with context. Art with purpose.
View Our CollectionsYour Art. Your Impact. Your Mountains.
Guardian membership unlocks everything: exclusive art pricing, expedition access, and direct preservation impact. The benefits pay for themselves; the impact lasts forever.
The Collector's Circle
Starting at $10/month
- 10-25% art savings that typically offset your annual membership with one purchase
- Early access to quarterly fine art releases before public availability
- Expedition priority for intimate 10-person mountain experiences
- Quarterly impact reports from preservation programs your dues fund directly
- Exclusive wallpapers for your devices, refreshed each season
100% of membership dues fund preservation programs. We cover the art discounts, so artists and mountains both receive full support.
A Filmmaker Who Became a Guardian
From the roof of the world, perspective changes everything.
Emmy-nominated filmmaker Dirk Collins spent 25 years documenting Earth's most remote peaks for National Geographic, Disney, and Rolex. He co-founded Teton Gravity Research, revolutionizing adventure filmmaking. He managed expeditions to install the world's highest weather station near Everest's summit. But standing at 29,000 feet, camera in hand, something shifted. The communities protecting these mountains, the water towers sustaining half of humanity, had no global voice. Forests had champions. Oceans had advocates. Mountains had silence.
Planet 5 exists to break that silence through storytelling.
Every photograph documents resilience. Every expedition captures partnerships between people and peaks. Every Guardian amplifies mountain voices that have protected these ecosystems for generations.
Through transparent business partnerships, world-class photography, and exclusive expeditions, Dirk proves that supporting mountain communities and building sustainable enterprises aren't opposing goals. They're the same work.