The Arctic Via The Lens Of Photographer Piet Van Den Bemd

There are some locations on earth the place the panorama appears too huge to {photograph}, the place the horizon is damaged solely by mountains, sea ice and the occasional darkish form of an animal transferring throughout the white. For Piet van den Bemd, Svalbard is a kind of locations, and but, after years spent travelling by the High Arctic, it’s this vastness that retains bringing him again.

Van den Bemd is an expedition chief {and professional} wildlife photographer, whose work has appeared in nature documentaries, newspapers and scientific publications. Regularly working as a images information for Secret Atlas, they describe his method to images as a mix of technical experience, curiosity and a willingness to embrace the unknown.

But his relationship with the Arctic started lengthy earlier than images turned his career. “I think the inspiration has always been there,” he says. He grew up travelling together with his dad and mom, whereas his father labored as an expert photographer. “Photography and exploring nature were part of my life from a very young age.”

The decisive second got here a lot later although, throughout an internship with a whale-watching firm in Northern Norway. His job included photographing whale tails to establish particular person animals and monitor their actions. Occasionally, one in every of his pictures would catch individuals’s consideration. “Eventually I sold my first image,” he remembers. “That was when I started to realize that I could combine my passion for wildlife, photography and travelling into something more than just a hobby.” That mixture has since turn out to be, in his phrases, “a total way of life.”

Van den Bemd’s fascination with the far north started when he was about six, on a visit to Swedish Lapland together with his father. He remembers “the cold, the snow, the Northern Lights and those enormous, open landscapes.” Living for years in Northern Norway deepened that connection, significantly the Arctic’s extraordinary seasons: the winter darkness and the seemingly infinite gentle of summer time.

Svalbard, nonetheless, had a selected pull. “I always knew that further north was this incredible island called Svalbard. It kept drawing me in.” In 2021, he started working there as a information, and since then he’s skilled the archipelago in radically other ways: from snowmobile journeys by the spring, to summer time expeditions by ship. That selection is a part of the attraction. “It constantly offers you a completely different world to discover,” he says.

The Arctic can also be a world in flux, and van den Bemd is cautious to not current private observations as scientific conclusions. Yet some adjustments are troublesome to overlook. “Glaciers are retreating, winters are becoming shorter, and the period of snow and ice is changing,” he says. “We also seem to experience increasingly unusual and sometimes quite extreme weather conditions.” Perhaps most hanging, he says, is the pace of the transformation: “Places that looked completely different a few years ago can now be noticeably altered.”

For a photographer, nonetheless, the Arctic isn’t merely a narrative about environmental change. It’s a spot of extraordinary encounters, and the polar bear stays his favourite topic. “Both polar bears and orcas are top predators, strong, intelligent and incredibly adaptable,” he says. “They’ve evolved to survive in some of the most extreme environments on our planet.”

Spend sufficient time watching a person animal, he says, and “You start to see its character… you’re not just documenting a species anymore, you’re getting to know a particular animal, its behavior and its personality.” One encounter introduced that actuality into sharp focus: a polar bear searching a sub-adult walrus within the water. The battle lasted nearly two hours. “It was probably the most raw and intense wildlife experience I have ever witnessed,” van den Bemd says. “There was nothing staged or predictable about it, simply two powerful animals in a fight for survival.”

Yet, a few of his most significant images are quieter. He remembers watching a mom polar bear with a cub just a few months previous on the frozen ocean. The tiny animal performed and explored, apparently encountering people for maybe the primary time. “It was fascinating to watch,” he says. “There was something incredibly pure and balanced about that moment; the mother, the cub, the frozen ocean and this natural curiosity between us.”

Such moments require persistence, one thing van den Bemd admits doesn’t come naturally to him. “In my everyday life I have very little patience,” he says. “I am often rushing around, wanting to do more and more. But as soon as I am out photographing wildlife, something changes.”

During the pandemic, he spent days alone in small hides in japanese Finland photographing bears and wolves. The expertise taught him one thing that now informs his Arctic work: “Patience is not really about waiting for something to happen. It is about being comfortable with the waiting itself.” And then, generally, nature delivers. The problem is accepting that it might not. Van den Bemd typically imagines a picture lengthy earlier than he presses the shutter. But “nature does what nature does.” Wildlife strikes unexpectedly. Light adjustments. A fleeting alternative disappears. “You cannot control nature, so you have to be flexible, react quickly and be creative with whatever you have in front of you.”

Indeed, a few of his favourite images are those he by no means managed to take. “They are still out there somewhere,” he says. “Perhaps that is what keeps me going, knowing that the next opportunity could be the one you have been waiting for.”

That sense of risk runs by his images. For van den Bemd, the last word function goes past producing spectacular photos. He desires viewers to attach with the animals and landscapes he encounters, and thru that connection, to care about what occurs to them. “I believe awareness is where change begins,” he says. “If people can connect with a polar bear, a landscape or a moment through one of my photographs, perhaps they will become a little more curious, a little more aware of the world around them and ultimately more motivated to protect it.”

Piet Van den Bemd doesn’t need images to dictate what individuals ought to assume. “For me, photography is not about telling people what to think or feel,” he says, “It’s about showing them something worth caring about.”

Making Polar Travel Easier

That similar understanding of the polar world lies behind Arctos, a brand new unbiased polar journey consultancy based by van den Bemd and a handful of different extremely skilled guides who’ve spent years dwelling and dealing in Svalbard and different polar areas.

Choosing a polar expedition may be surprisingly difficult. There are dozens of ships, operators and itineraries, from small, adventurous expedition vessels to bigger ships providing consolation and luxurious. The proper journey, relies upon fully on the traveler. Arctos was created to make selecting simpler and extra clear.

Drawing on their expertise and relationships with polar operators, the crew matches vacationers with the correct ship, itinerary and magnificence of expertise, from intimate, adventurous expeditions to wildlife and photography-focused journeys. Their recommendation is free, with fee agreements permitting them to stay unbiased with their suggestions.

For van den Bemd, this philosophy matches naturally together with his personal method to exploration: perceive the atmosphere, stay open to what it presents and benefit from the chance in entrance of you. Ultimately, that’s what he desires his images to do.

For extra of Svalbard journey and Piet van den Bemd’s images learn my article 10 Days At The Edge Of The Earth.