Review
Polar Obsession by Paul Nicklen
He began his career as a wildlife biologist and took up photography fifteen years ago with the desire to bridge the gap between scientific research and public knowledge on wildlife subjects and climate change.. Svalbard, Norway Looking towards an uncertain future, a huge male bear triggers a camera trap, taking his own picture. Leifdefjorden, Spitsbergen, Norway In the Arctic spring, meltwater channels drain toward and down a seal hole, returning to the sea. Paul Nicklen has been published in magazines around the world, including ten articles for National Geographic. Antarctic Peninsula A large bull walrus returns to the shores of Prins Karl Forland after diving and feeding on clams. Port Lockroy, Antarctic Peninsula A leopard seal feeds Paul Nicklen a penguin. Svalbard, Norway Narwhals dive deep under the ice to feed on Arctic cod, then return to the surface to breathe and raise their tusks high in the air. Hudson Strait, Nunavut, Canada A gentoo penguin chick peeks, checking for patrolling leopard seals before tempting fate. The Arctic is in Paul Nicklens blood. In a wise and wonderful intertwining of art and science, his bold expeditions plunge him into freezing seas to capture unprecedented, up-close documentation of the lives of leopard seals, whales, walruses, polar bears, bearded seals, and narwhals. Lancaster Sound, Nunavut, Canada Mother bear and two-year-old cub drift on glacier ice. At an age when most children are playing hide-and-seek, he was learning life-and-death lessons of survival: how to read the weather, find shelter in a frozen snowscape, or live off the land as his Inuit neighbors had done for centuries.Today Nicklen is a naturalist and wildlife photographer uniquely qualified to portray the impact of climate change on the polar regions and their inhabitants, human and animal alike. Barents Sea, Svalbard, Norway A kittiwake soars in front of a large iceberg. Anvers Island, Antarctica A young polar bear leaps between ice floes. Bathed in polar light, his images, inspiring and amazing, break new ground in photography and provide a vivid, timely portrait of two extraordinary, endangered ecosystems. Look Inside Polar Obsession Click on thumbnails for larger images A large female leopard seal greets photographer Gran Ehlm.