Speakers
With a sensational line-up of the world’s finest nature photographers and industry experts, including winners from the prestigious Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, this two-day event, promises to inspire and enthuse.
Confirmed speakers so far include:
SANDRA BARTOCHA (GERMANY)
Sandra Bartocha is a photographer specializing in natural landscapes and plants, with the specific aim of creating images that evoke an emotional response. Her pictures have been published in European magazine, books and calendars, and she has twice been awarded overall winner of the ‘100 Images of the Year’ competition of the GfF (Society of Photography). Sandra is vice-president of the GDT (Society of German Nature Photographers) and chief editor of the magazine GDT Forum Naturfotografie, and was one of the photographic team for the pan-European Wild Wonders of Europe initiative.
PETER CAIRNS (UK)Based in the Scottish Highlands, Peter Cairns is an award-winning nature photographer with a deep fascination for our relationship with the natural world. In addition to documenting Europe’s high-profile wildlife, Peter covers a range of topical conservation stories, from nature tourism to the potential reintroduction of wolves – and most things in between. He authors illustrated magazine features and has co-authored three books on Europe’s wildlife and our relationship with it. He was a co-founder of the widely acclaimed Tooth & Claw predator project, from which a permanent research centre is being developed. More recently, Peter has worked as Business Director for Wild Wonders of Europe, and is a founding Director of the Wild Media Foundation, a social enterprise that uses visual media to work with the scientific community. Peter is also a Director of the Scottish Nature Tourism Association and Wild Scotland and an Associate of the International League of Conservation Photographers.
MARK CARWARDINE (UK)Mark Carwardine is a zoologist, an active conservationist, an award-winning writer, a TV and radio presenter and a widely published wildlife photographer. He has been Chairman of the judging panel of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition since 2005. His own collection of wildlife and conservation photographs, taken in more than 100 countries, is sold through picture agencies around the world. Mark recently co-presented the six-part BBC2 television series Last Chance to See, with Stephen Fry, in search of endangered species (following in the footsteps of a similar journey Mark made with Douglas Adams 20 years before), and also The Museum of Life, a BBC2 television six-part series. He has written more than 50 books (including several bestsellers) and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, and writes regularly for BBC Wildlife magazine. Mark also spends a lot of time voluntarily raising funds and awareness for conservation and holds official positions in several different wildlife charities.
JOE CORNISH (UK)Joe Cornish has been one of the leading lights of British landscape photography since 1989, when he had his first London exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall. He has worked freelance for the National Trust for more than two decades, creating images that have helped redefine the way the British landscape is seen at home and abroad, as well as helping define his own environmental philosophy. A columnist and contributor to many of the UK’s photo magazines, he has also written a number of books during the last decade. First Light, a Landscape Photographer’s Art is studied in schools and colleges, while Scotland’s Mountains, a Landscape Photographer’s View has been hailed as a classic by photographers and mountaineers. His latest book, Joe Cornish, a Photographer at Work, will be published this autumn and is a collaboration with Eddie Ephraums.
DANNY ELLINGER (NETHERLANDS)Danny Ellinger is director of the Dutch nature photo stock agency Foto Natura and the organizer and the manager of the ‘Foto Natura Expedition Team’, which has undertaken assignments in Guyana, Brazil, Hungary and Aldabra, resulting in highly illustrated books. He studied as a fiscal lawyer, but his passion has always been nature and photography, in particular, the photography of birds. Danny has been at the forefront of digital wildlife photography, making the most of what new developments have offered. He has recently launched the large-format, high-quality nature photography magazine E&V.
DAVID DOUBILET (USA)David Doubilet is one of the world’s foremost underwater photographers, the recipient of many prestigious awards. Born in New York, he began snorkelling when he was 8 and started taking underwater photographs when he was just 12. David is a contributing photographer and author for National Geographic Magazine, for which he has photographed more than 65 stories since his first assignment in 1971. A feature columnist, contributing editor and author of many books about the sea, his work continues to appear in publications and exhibitions worldwide. The first published collection of his work, Light in the Sea, raised the creative stakes of underwater photography, and the follow-up volume Water, Light and Time is regarded as a classic.
KAREN GLASER (USA)Twenty-five years ago, Karen Glaser was given a Minolta Weathermatic instamatic for her birthday. It changed her life. Today she still finds herself drawn to subjects in and around water. Karen has a Master of Fine Arts in Photography, and her pictures are in multiple museum and corporate collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago. ‘Mysterious Manatees’ was first shown at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Recently, ‘Dark Sharks/ Light Rays’ was exhibited at the Griffin Museum of Photography, and a major survey of her ‘Springs and Swamps work’ will be at the Southeast Museum of Photography next year. Honours include a National Endowment for the Arts Regional Fellowship, and recent awards are two ‘artist in residences’, at Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park. Karen is currently the Photographer Laureate for the City of Tampa, Florida, where she is creating a portfolio about Tampa’s Hillsborough River.
www.karenglaserphotography.com
LAURENT GESLIN (FRANCE)Laurent Geslin (France) is a professional photographer based in Switzerland. Though his passion is wildlife photography, his commissions involve portraiture and reportage. His work is regularly published in magazines such as BBC Wildlife, Geographical and Animan and national papers. Exhibitions include one at the United Nations in Geneva on the day-to-day survival of refugees in North Senegal and another on the ecosystem of one of the largest lakes in Europe, Lake Leman. He was a Wild Wonders of Europe photographer and is now concentrating on photographing European urban wildlife. His latest book, Urban Safari, is published in October.
CHARLIE HAMILTON JAMES (UK)Charlie Hamilton James is a photographer, cameraman and film-maker, specialising in wildlife documentaries, which he now makes mainly for the BBC though Halcyon Media, the company he runs with his wife Philippa Forrester. His latest BBC series was Halcyon River Diaries, which told the story of Charlie and his young family getting to know their wild neighbours on the river outside their house. Other films he has made include The Wild Wood, On the Trail of Tarka, An Otter in the Family and Wye – Voices from the Valley. His passion, however, is still photography (he was twice Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year), which is another way of channelling his obsession with kingfishers and otters. His most recent feature was on kingfishers for National Geographic.
TIM LAMAN (USA)Tim Laman is a wildlife photojournalist and a field biologist, working on land and under water, with a passion for wild places and the documentation of little-known and endangered species. He is a contributing photographer for National Geographic Magazine, with 18 articles to his name, all with a conservation message. Tim is also a fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers and a research associate in ornithology at the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology, and he firmly believes that promoting awareness through visual means can make a difference to the fate of the world’s wild species and places.
MARK LEONG (USA)Mark Leong is a fifth-generation American-Chinese whose family emigrated to the USA more than 100 years ago. After graduating from Harvard University, he was awarded a travel fellowship to spend a year taking photographs in China. He returned as an artist-in-residence at the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing, and subsequently made Beijing a base for assignments all over Asia. His photographs have appeared in publications including Time, Fortune, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker and National Geographic. He has exhibited internationally, and his book China Obscura won a special citation from the Overseas Press Club. He is currently working on a long-term project about mass consumption in China.
www.mark-leong.com.temp.livebooks.com
KATHY MORAN (USA)Kathy Moran is National Geographic magazine’s senior editor for natural history projects. A 29-year veteran of the National Geographic Society, Kathy has been producing projects about terrestrial and underwater ecosystems for the magazine since 1990. At last count, she has produced more than 160 stories for the magazine. She is a founding member of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) and serves on its executive committee and membership committee. Kathy is always on the lookout for new contributors for its natural history inventory.
KLAUS NIGGE (GERMANY)Klaus Nigge is a photographer and artist who studied art and philosophy and has a degree in biology. He is a past president of GDT – the Society of German Nature Photographers and a recipient of the Fritz-Steininger Award from GDT, together with prizes in competitions including Wildlife Photographer of the Year. His stories have featured in magazines such as National Geographic, GEO, Terre Sauvage and Airone, and he has published five books, on Kamchatka, the American bald eagle, European bisons and European cranes. His latest book, Whooping Crane: Images from the wild, will be published this autumn.
STEFANO UNTERTHINER (ITALY)Stefano Unterthiner (Italy) began serious photography at the age of 17, went on to study zoology, obtaining a PhD from the University of Aberdeen, and then started his career as a professional photographer. His first assignment won him the prestigious Mario Pastore prize for best young environmental journalist. Widely published in magazines worldwide, he is author of six photographic books, the latest of which will be published by the end of this year following his latest assignment for National Geographic Magazine. He works mainly on projects focusing on conservation and endangered wildlife, in particular on human-nature interaction. He is a regular prize-winner in the international Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, a fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) and a Wild Wonders of Europe photographer.
STEVE WATKINS (UK)Steve Watkins is an award-winning travel photographer and writer, and editor of Outdoor Photography magazine, the UK’s only specialist nature-photography title. He has worked closely over the years with BBC Books, and wrote and shot three of the titles in the international bestselling Unforgettable series – including Unforgettable things to do before you die – for which he shot location images in 65 countries.
www.stevewatkins.com | www.vividplanet.com
Your WildPhoto compère will be CHRIS PACKHAM (UK)
Chris Packham is a TV presenter (currently presenting the BBC’s Springwatch and Autumnwatch series), photographer and author, with a passion for nature and a talent for making conservation of concern to the wider public. He holds a number of prestigious honorary posts with the major UK charities. After gaining a degree in zoology, he trained as a cameraman and then went on to present and produce numerous wildlife programmes, from The Really Wild Show and The X-Creatures to the C4 photography series Wild Shots. He has been both a prize-winner and a judge of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
www.chrispackham.co.uk | www.chrispackhamphotos.co.uk
More names will be announced in the coming months, and so check here for updates or sign up for our newsletter.
The list of speakers is subject to change.
