I fell through the ice for the first
time when I was five years old the ice
and the snow were my sandbox it was
winter 11 months a year as we’re out on
the sea ice traveling on the ice
navigating thin ice snowmobiling
building igloos pitching tents waiting
all blizzards
you know catching seals living on raw
seal meat living on raw caribou meat I
didn’t realize that I was learning all
these survival skills that would go on
to make me comfortable in this
environment I found photography through
frustration I was a biologist and I got
tired of watching you know these big
bears walk across the ice I was watching
white wolves catch bearded seals and eat
them on the ice and all I had to show
for that that at the end of this
incredible expedition was a stack of
data sheets everything I’ve done in
photography and storytelling has been to
bridge the gap between the science that
I loved and the public it wasn’t science
it wasn’t the data do you need
photography to connect people to that
issue emotionally I always say heaven is
here and now I mean when I am under the
ice or I am on the ice I’m watching a
big polar bear I’m in a rainforest or
diving in the cenotes of Mexico you
always pinch yourself I could never have
envisioned anything more beautiful and
intense and wonderful is what I’m seeing
right now in front of me since I was a
kid there was an Arctic that I I knew
that Arctic is disappearing the ice is
disappearing we’re gonna lose the entire
summer extent of sea ice in the next
five to ten years we ultimately are
going to see the collapse of an entire
polar ecosystem so there is an
incredible urgency in the work that I’m
doing I must shoot these pictures now
these images have to be intimate they
have to be current they have to be
powerful enough to create behavioral
change if people are gonna care about
this planet before it’s too late and
we’re at the turning point now then we
need people to reconnect that is why I
work 18 hours a day that’s why I take
the risks that I do and that’s why I
shoot as many stories that can in these
polar ecosystems and get them back to
this magazine that will reach 40 million
people the biggest audience we could
ever have in the line of work we do I’m
an addict and I’m a wildlife
nature storytelling addict I love the
unknown of getting in the water with a
leopard seal or a walrus or it could go
south very quickly but to be vulnerable
in the presence of an amazing animal and
and being able to create art and change
people’s perceptions all at the same
time and to even translate what the
scientists are trying to say and have
people potentially care about things
like climate change and disappearing sea
ice that all collectively is the drug
for me
time when I was five years old the ice
and the snow were my sandbox it was
winter 11 months a year as we’re out on
the sea ice traveling on the ice
navigating thin ice snowmobiling
building igloos pitching tents waiting
all blizzards
you know catching seals living on raw
seal meat living on raw caribou meat I
didn’t realize that I was learning all
these survival skills that would go on
to make me comfortable in this
environment I found photography through
frustration I was a biologist and I got
tired of watching you know these big
bears walk across the ice I was watching
white wolves catch bearded seals and eat
them on the ice and all I had to show
for that that at the end of this
incredible expedition was a stack of
data sheets everything I’ve done in
photography and storytelling has been to
bridge the gap between the science that
I loved and the public it wasn’t science
it wasn’t the data do you need
photography to connect people to that
issue emotionally I always say heaven is
here and now I mean when I am under the
ice or I am on the ice I’m watching a
big polar bear I’m in a rainforest or
diving in the cenotes of Mexico you
always pinch yourself I could never have
envisioned anything more beautiful and
intense and wonderful is what I’m seeing
right now in front of me since I was a
kid there was an Arctic that I I knew
that Arctic is disappearing the ice is
disappearing we’re gonna lose the entire
summer extent of sea ice in the next
five to ten years we ultimately are
going to see the collapse of an entire
polar ecosystem so there is an
incredible urgency in the work that I’m
doing I must shoot these pictures now
these images have to be intimate they
have to be current they have to be
powerful enough to create behavioral
change if people are gonna care about
this planet before it’s too late and
we’re at the turning point now then we
need people to reconnect that is why I
work 18 hours a day that’s why I take
the risks that I do and that’s why I
shoot as many stories that can in these
polar ecosystems and get them back to
this magazine that will reach 40 million
people the biggest audience we could
ever have in the line of work we do I’m
an addict and I’m a wildlife
nature storytelling addict I love the
unknown of getting in the water with a
leopard seal or a walrus or it could go
south very quickly but to be vulnerable
in the presence of an amazing animal and
and being able to create art and change
people’s perceptions all at the same
time and to even translate what the
scientists are trying to say and have
people potentially care about things
like climate change and disappearing sea
ice that all collectively is the drug
for me
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