Exploring Svalbard, Norway is an unforgettable experience. Because it is so difficult to reach, and to travel around, it is one of the last wild places in the world with stunning arctic wildlife. Unique and remote destinations are just some of the highlights on this voyage through the Arctic.
Services included in this photography tour:
Expedition with 12 nights aboard the MS Stockholm
All meals and drinks, including alcoholic, aboard the MS Stockholm included
Land activities during the cruise: Zodiac excursions with an expert expedition team
Private field instruction with Art Wolfe
Portfolio reviews, lectures, and educational programs
My good friend & fellow photographer David duChemin has just released a new eBook, which features an interview with moi.
Everyone who buys SEE THE WORLD before February 19, 2015 is automatically entered to win a new Fuji X-E2 and 18-55mm lens.
About SEE THE WORLD
[20 Lessons for Stronger Travel Photographs]
The best photographs from around the world have little to do with the camera that was used or how compact the tripod was; they have everything to do with the photographer you bring with you. See The World is an investment in that photographer: you.
This 210-page PDF eBook covers some of the concerns of traveling, such as which cameras to take, preparing packing lists, how to deal with carry-on luggage restrictions, choosing tripods and bags, but those are just the trivial details. The important details are in the 20 lessons designed to teach you what David believes is the real art of traveling with a camera while experiencing new places, landscapes, and cultures. See the World outlines the importance of storytelling and finding elements of the visual language that help you tell those stories, dealing with people, and working through the creative process of seeing places for the first time. This book summarizes the real work of making photographs that are more visually arresting and emotionally compelling.
Yes, we finally did get out of Punta Arenas! Antarctica was waiting for us with beautiful skies, ice, microflora and of course, penguins. I even started to see them in the patterns of my abstracts. Can you?
Flying into Antarctica can be a dicey proposition. We were stranded in Punta Arenas, Chile for a few days before the weather cleared enough on the icy continent, then hours later we couldn’t land and had to return for another try a day later. We did get a great view of Fitz Roy and the Patagonian Icecap, though.
On the last leg of our east African sojourn earlier this year, we stayed at the idyllic Mnemba Island Lodge on tiny Mnemba Island adjacent to Zanzibar. Within twenty minutes of arriving we witnessed the last batch of green sea turtles leave their nest and enter the Indian Ocean. One in a thousand will return twenty five years later.
No trip to east Africa is complete without a visit to the magnificent Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania. It is the largest unfilled, inactive volcanic caldera in the world. Various hominids have lived here for 3 million years and currently about 25000 large mammals from rhinos to hippos to zebras make this area home.
Yellowstone National Park is spectacular in the winter. We stayed at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge, one of the few lodges open in the winter. From there we explored the Norris Geyser Basin via snowcoach, passed all the while by snowmobilers, who now are restricted to roads and use significantly quieter engines. As always the wildlife is varied and accessible, but what I liked photographing were the landscapes, especially the pine forests that burned back in the late 1980s. Their regimented geometry was softened by the falling snow.
With the publication of Earth Is My Witness, 2014 was a highlight year in my career. So much energy and time was put toward this mega project that to see it finally in published form gives everyone at Art Wolfe, Inc. an enormous sense of accomplishment. Earth Is My Witness was launched at an event at the California Academy of Sciences.
While my travel schedule slowed down somewhat, I did find myself in India twice—particularly in Ladakh, searching for the elusive snow leopard. I saw several, but at great distances. Regardless, it was a tremendous experience in a rugged and elemental landscape. Next up were Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park, Alaska’s Glacier Bay and Katmai National Parks, and Norway’s Svalbard Archipelago. After teaching a couple workshops in Oregon and Washington, I headed off to Kenya, Ethiopia and Papua New Guinea to make a series of specials for Australian TV. In November I joined Denis Glennon and Frans Lanting in South Georgia Island and Antarctica. Then Iceland’s Bárðarbunga volcano beckoned and I answered its call. It’s been erupting since August and shows no sign of slowing down. My final trip of the year to East Africa straddled 2014-2015.
My prints were featured in the “Pristine Russia” traveling exhibit and “Power of the Image” exhibit in Beijing. I had two gallery openings this year: The Konica Minolta Gallery featured my work in January. My work is also hanging in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History as part of the Nature’s Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards Exhibition.
On the awards front, Human Canvas was selected for the Graphis Photography Annual. Earth Is My Witness was named a “Best Photo Book of the Year” by American Photo magazine. I was honored be included in the UK magazine Professional Photography as part of their 100 Photography Heroes special issue.
Travels to the Edge continued to air around the world, including a first-time run in France as Voyages Au Bout Du Monde Avec Art Wolfe.
If you find yourself in Seattle, please do not hesitate to drop by my gallery. As always, please keep an eye on artwolfe.com for the latest updates. Wishing you and yours a bountiful New Year!
Nothing is more exciting than flying for 8 hours above herds of wildebeest and other critters of the Serengeti, above Lake Natron’s spectacular mineral deposits and lesser flamingos, and finally around the summit of “Ol Doinyo Lengai” volcano the Maasais call the home of the gods. The surface of Natron is surreal, colorful, and geometric, seemingly made for me. In some of the flamingo images you will see both reflections and shadows from the same birds resulting in beautifully complex compositions.
See the First and Second videos in the series of East Africa Video Journals.
While the Serengeti always offers its share of fine wildlife sightings, I was quite excited by seeing the 120,000 year old Engaresero Footprints. These are among the oldest modern human tracks in the world.
