The fame and glamour of a successful career in photography can at best be likened to the tip of an iceberg. It is the artist’s vision, passion and grit that constitute the inner layers. Paul Nicklen, the man whose polar obsession has offered the world some of the most candid images of the devastating effects that a rapidly warming planet has had on the arctic regions, says that sometimes he has visited the same spot for nine years to find that image he felt will truly connect with the audience.
Nicklen, along with Pulitzer winning photojournalist Muhammed Muheisen and Lars Boering, Managing Director of the World Press Photo Foundation took the Xposure 2017 stage on Wednesday morning to set the scene for this one-of-its-kind International Photography Festival in the region.
Paul Nicklen’s storytelling turned out to be as captivating as his images, which takes audiences to some of the farthest points in the high arctic and Antarctica, inhabited by gigantic polar bears, leopard seals, and narwhales. He says he picked up a camera because he was dissatisfied being just a marine biologist because science wasn’t being as impactful an advocate for environmental awareness. He wanted to make the experience real for people.
“I fell in love with the arctic wildlife. I cared about it; I wanted to make a difference. It’s my job as a photojournalist to bring the oceans to the world. The water I dive into is minus 1.8 degrees Celsius – the coldest salt water gets before freezing. The first 5 minutes of the dives, you lose all feeling in your face, your head and hands. Your body tries to keep you alive while you are entering the early stages of hypothermia. You can hardly feel the camera and a single dive can last for over an hour, but in the end it’s worth the risk,” he said.
“If I’m alone, cold and miserable and I’m looking at big scary animals, I know I’m in the right place,” Nicklen added.
Highlighting the power of social media platforms for raising environmental awareness in this day and age when over 120 million people use the internet, he said: “I’m not one for photographing soft fluffy animals, but bait the millennial kid with a cute baby penguin and then hit them with the conservation message. It works.”
This was followed by a tribute to the late Anja Niedringhaus, the German photojournalist who worked for Associated Press and was killed while covering the 2014 general elections in Afghanistan. The remembrance message was given by her former colleague and a member of the AP team, Muhammed Muheisen who is seen participating in Xposure for the second year in a row.
“It is hard to talk about Anja in the past tense. She was a very special person, a great friend and a colleague. She was one of the few war journalists who could see calm in chaos. She may have been the only happy journalist in the world,” he said emotionally.
The opening presentations were wrapped up by Boering, who spoke about at a ‘coercive persuasion’, highlighting the importance of responsible, honest journalism in a world that is becoming increasingly open with digitisation where we have easy access to information and other peoples works.
He said: “There is a new generation of conflict photographers who use images of other photographers, which is a very dangerous thing. We should be able to trust what we see. Journalism is a valuable profession, and photography is an integral part of it.”
Xposure 2017 is an outstanding platform for the lovers of the visual language. It is a celebration of global perspectives, and gives people in the UAE a chance to view the world through some of the bravest, kindest, and most creatively discerning eyes.
The second edition of the Xposure, organised by Sharjah Government Media Bureau (SGMB), runs until Saturday, 25 November, at Expo Centre Sharjah. A high profile event, featuring a gathering of 32 of the world’s most celebrated photographers, is expected to spark a region-wide engagement and inspiration.
To learn more about the Festival, please visit www.xposure.ae and social networking platforms by using #xposurexpf.
