Svalbard, Norway 2017

What adjectives best describe an adult male polar bear? This question is often the start of a cognitive process that bends back and prompts me in my deliberations as to how to take an animal’s portrait in a way that does it justice. There is process in the preconception of ideas because ideally, I want to convey the most considered of these adjectives in my photography. I am sensitive to the need to deliver with a portrait, as I am all too aware that wildlife photography can be dull, when at best it must be creative and evocative.

Polar bears are certainly big and dangerous. But they are more than that – they sit at the top of the food chain at the top of the world. Inevitably, imagery of polar bears is often used to endorse and emphasize the cold but great photographs of this alpha mammal should also surely convey majesty and sovereignty. Of all the predators on our planet – including the lion – it is the polar bear that I find the most regal. That was the prompt in my preconception – I needed to home in on the majesty of the polar bear.

To do this well requires a special image – there is no room for anything other than intimacy and crystal sharp focus against a perfect backdrop. Svalbard is no “studio” – it is the wild and this goes some way to explaining why this image was preceded by five years of failure. The bear’s distinctive Roman nose is best captured with the mammal perpendicular to the camera with his head raised.

I wanted an image that celebrates the life of the Emperor of the North – there is no appetite on my part to deliver another hackneyed image documenting global warming. The polar bear should never be regarded as ordinary or familiar – because it is neither. That gorgeous summer’s day, I shot almost directly into the sun and the glittering sea is apposite – this is a celebration of the glory of planet earth and the polar bear’s position at its summit. He is the Emperor of the North and the star of this image. I was just a bystander with a decent camera.

Alaska, 2018

This photograph – taken high up on the North Slope of Alaska on Thursday morning – is special for us. It is a photograph I have always aspired to take. The best pictures can never be retaken.

There were two or three key elements to its capture. Firstly, because the physical enormity of an adult bear is best conveyed head on and from low on the ground, we had to try and find a position where the terrain offered a horizon and an incline between me and the bear. The second and more important dynamic was to use the 25 mph wind to our favour.

Bears can smell us from a long way away so long as they are downwind. Then of course – the overriding factor – was our safety. At all times we had to have an escape route. We knew what to do here and I had the best Inuit guide in the area. I felt safe with him, but please do not try this at home.

This bear is enormous and my positioning shows that off. It was all over in maybe five seconds – but I will never forget them.

People understandably worry about polar bear numbers – but be assured there is a load of big healthy bears on the North Slope. I think we saw over 25 in a week.

Pryramiden, Svalbard 2019

I know Pyramiden quite well – I have visited 4 times. It is a largely abandoned Russian mining town that sits at 78.2 degrees north – making it the most northerly community in the world. Only six people now live there full time, but it remains a ghostly reminder of the USSR. Soviet culture, architecture and politics permeate the town, from the block-style housing to the bust of Lenin—the world’s northernmost statue of that communist revolutionary— which gazes down, fatherly and proud, on Pyramiden’s main square.

I have always wanted to get a big photograph of this creepy place, but I needed winter, winds and a palpable sense of the frozen north. This is not a place to photograph in the summer. Most of all I needed a polar bear. In early spring 2019, I had my moment.

There is enough detail in the background layer of this photograph to make out factory buildings, chimneys, carts and tracks and indeed a disused mineshaft. The light was kind and the wind ferocious. With the wind chill, this was as cold as I can remember working with a camera. I had to wear one glove and manual focus was not easy. This was not a time to use autofocus on that bear – not with the wind and medley of whites.

The photograph is indeed a big photograph – bigger than I could have possibly wished for. There is a large amount of luck involved as the adult female bear came into town at the perfect time – one of just 5 adult bears we saw in Svalbard that week.

This is the land of norse legends, myths and fables. The photograph is so visually detached from our day to day experiences that it looks like a fairytale or a painting. This is surely my Game of Thrones moment and now I have seen what is North of the Wall.

This photograph was taken whilst leading an assignment with @naturalworldsafaris – a special thank you to the brilliant team there for organizing the adventure.