Last spring I received an email - “Hello! We saw your photos of polar bears in The Guardian, would you like to go on a cruise to the North Pole as an expedition photographer?” Immediately, an image came to mind - the ideal shot - a polar bear standing next to an icebreaker in the middle of an endless snowy tundra. I didn’t need any convincing. The fates will cease to be generous if you don’t seize the opportunities given to you.
People have asked what draws me to the very unglamorous life of wildlife photography. And the truth is it’s a game of luck. You can hone your skills and get the right gear, but in the end it’s down to being in the right place, at the right millisecond. There are so many uncontrollable factors: the animal’s mood, the weather… if Mercury is in retrograde. Okay, the last one was a jest, but the point is it’s like playing a roulette, it’s a gamble - easy to get hooked. The more you photograph, the higher the stakes. But one day you realize that it’s the journey you seek, not the result. At some point the the chase becomes better than the catch.
So I rolled the dice once again, and ended up on board one of the most powerful nuclear-powered icebreakers in the world. The ship can autonomously stay at sea for 5 years and calmly pass through 3m-thick ice. It's a weird feeling knowing that somewhere beneath your feet neutrons are colliding in two nuclear reactors, enough to power a medium-sized city.
The path to the North Pole is about 2400 km, and (so far) a 1000 km of which are through ice. It’s worth noting that this may not be the case in the near future. The ice caps are melting and according to the worst forecasts, they may disappear completely in the second half of our century. This has many implications, the least of which is that there’ll no longer be a need for such a ship.
We passed Franz Josef Land, a large northern archipelago, when someone spotted an ivory gull - a rather rare bird in these parts that very often accompanies polar bears. “If you see that gull - look for a bear!” said our expedition leader, who had been to the North Pole 26 times and did not throw words into the wind. We kept our eyes out, and soon, a bright dot appeared on the horizon… But like a gift that kept on giving, there was more than one dot - it was a female polar bear with three cubs. The birth of three cubs is a rare occurrence in nature and our expert leader had not had such an encounter in all his 26 trips.
In the unusual case that the third cub is born, it’ll be the weakest, and the mother has to help him more than the rest, and it’ll difficult for it to survive into adulthood. In this photo, you can see the cub in the middle - it’s the smallest one.
And here the little cub is to the right.
The icebreaker stopped, and the mother bear didn't pay us much attention. As she just walked around, getting on with her day, all I had to do was take the pictures that flashed through my head. I used a drone to capture the moment, gradually letting the animals get used to the buzzing from afar so as to not startle them. Then she came close to the ship, peered into the thawed patch in the ice, as if waiting for a seal. The cubs curled up in a ball behind her and slept peacefully. At some point, she tilted her head, closed her eyes and froze - I snapped the shot.
You can take thousands of shots in the moment of a great encounter. You can shoot from one side, other side, every side. Sometimes you’re so exhilarated, you just hold your finger down taking 20+ frames per second. But you always feel that exact moment when you got “the” shot - the one you dreamed of. When everything comes together: the animal’s mood, light, clouds, composition, and perhaps a bit of nature’s magic. I called this image - “A Home Divided” and here’s why…
Unknown creator made a meme using my photo, which underlines my thoughts perfectly.
Source: 9gag.com
Polar bears and man exist in two different worlds:
We - wake up to our smartphone alarms, go to the office so that we can buy lunch, force ourselves to the gym to work off said lunch, and then go to the bar looking to forget the day at the bottom of a glass.
The bear just lives - and in order to live it does not need a Gucci bag or a TikTok feed.
Progress is relentless and as we move up the technological ladder, we are melting ice, destroying forests, and devastating the oceans. In the process, the two worlds - man and nature - continue to drift apart. And, the crown of this incompatibility - we board this huge iron vessel with a capacity of 75k horsepower, with a luxury bar and a pool to explore “the animal world”, a place moving further and further away from us.
The world as we know it is very fragile, and the current state of affairs - from political conflicts and nuclear tension to the climate crisis - means that the end could very well be nigh. These things are real, and if they continue as they are, the outcome will be catastrophic. I’m curious - what will it take to steer this ship around?
So - a home divided. Or maybe the world is divided?
