The Image Deconstructed: Spotlight on Paul Souders
Amazing photos of a polar bear emerging at an ice flow at the link.
TID:
Please tell us about the image’s context and background.
Paul:
I’ve wanted to photograph polar bears for years. I started in Svalbard, chartering steel-hulled sailboats and cruising around the high arctic, spending thousands of dollars for the pleasure of standing up on deck for endless hours in the biting cold, freezing slowly while scanning the pack ice for the slightest hint of a polar bear. Even as my shipmates sat downstairs warming their toes and sipping hot chocolate. When a bear was spotted, everyone would jockey for position on deck, and we’d all make the same pictures. It’s a good introduction. But now I wanted to strike out on my own.
I thought about the polar bears of Hudson Bay. I knew that Churchill, Manitoba is home of the Tundra Buggy and the birthplace of mass polar bear tourism. I’m glad it’s there; thousands of people have been able to see these incredible animals in the wild. All well and good, but I wasn’t sure I’d be able to break much new ground while rumbling across the tundra in a bus filled to overflowing with tourists and other photographers. I wanted to show the bears in a new way.