FAQ

Can I commission you?

Yes you can. I've usually got projects ongoing and I travel for a good part of each year, but there's often space for assignments, especially if the story fits with my themes: Polar Regions, Wild Places, Science, Norway and wider Scandinavia. You can see the results of commissioned work here.

How do I buy limited edition prints

I sell directly to buyers, though there are galleries I work with, if you would prefer to buy through a gallery. I oversee the entire printing process from tests and proofs right through to the final piece. Printing is usually done in London and the final piece is shipped along with a Certificate of Authenticity (COA), usually within 14 days, but dependent on workload. Work is available framed or unframed. Please e-mail me for more information about prints, to see samples and/or to go ahead with an order. Check this page to see how the work can look in different environments.

How do I obtain a license to use your images for publication?

I licence images directly, so just call with your requirements. When I'm 'home' you can usually deal with me directly, if in the field for a long period I will have an assistant responding to mails and calls. Between us we can make sure that images and stories are delivered to meet your deadline.

Do you shoot video?

Yes I've shot and edited film/ video for many years.  I’ve trained with the BBC in broadcast camera operation and continue to shoot video for NGOs, editorial clients and corporates, alongside photography assignments. For a film to accompany the National Geographic Magazine story about Arctic sea ice research, I shot footage, recorded sound and made time-lapse clips; the finished film received an award.

Can I buy a book of your work?

Yes, a book is coming soon! I'm working on a book of Arctic pictures -it's long overdue.

It looks cold, where you work. What's it like out there, how do you keep warm?

To get a feeling of what it's like out in the field you can have a look at this gallery. I use a lot of wool, a lot of layering and some of the technical clothing I use is very good. During the making of the Into Thin Ice story, though, temperatures fell to -38 degrees C, at that point cables started to snap and the whole team were experiencing frost nips to the face - we cancelled field work during many of the colder days.

What are your photographic influences?

I look at a lot of photography books. Some examples:
His Photographs and Notes by W Eugene Smith, Bruce Davidson's books (Central Park remains a favourite), Larry Towell's work, particularly the Mennonites. Eugene Richards’ early self published book 50 hours got to me, his American's We left an impression too. Chris Killip’s In Flagrante. Alex Webb and William Albert Allard for different perspectives on colour work. I don’t make a lot of portraits but I looked at Richard Avedon a lot and I was drawn to Anton Corbijn for his ideas and commentary. My esteemed colleagues who have shot stories for National Geographic Magazine and gather around the banner of The Photo Society, our joint website is well worth visiting for its collection of amazing photographers!

What's influenced you outside of photography?

I grew up with novels defined by landscape. So writers like Annie Proulx, Cormac McCarthy (Border Trilogy) and Per Petterson I respond to the way these writers build their characters from the outside in, using vivid descriptions of wild landscapes. In non-fiction Barry Lopez has been a big influence, writing about the soul of a landscape and how northern communities have become intertwined with nature over generations. The book Arctic Dreams is a must read for anyone thinking of travelling in the Arctic region. I've bought copies of the Heftig og Begeistret DVD to giveaway -that's a must see for anyone interested in characters within a modern, but still wild landscape.

You've collaborated with research institutes, NGOs and arts organisations.

Working on our own as a photographers can be challenging; there is a feeling that however good we are at researching the subject, we’re missing something. Collaborating with specialists in the field, I feel like I can get closer to the underlying issues. Another benefit of working with partner organisations is that the photography can be directed to point, the work may be required by user groups external to reportage. Perhaps there is a heightened sense of purpose in collaborating with scientists, institutes or NGOs, which in a world of overproduction of images is no bad thing. Scientific work (particularly with climate change and oceans) has a degree of urgency right now.

Is there a conservation or sustainability message in your work?

Working in the Arctic I can’t ignore the pace of the changes taking place. In terms of the loss of sea ice coverage in Summer, that has been more dramatic than anyone predicted. I've become aware of how everything connects in that place, of the interdependent nature of the Arctic system. I realised how it connects to the rest of the world too, in terms of climate and temperature regulation, ocean currents and sea levels. The Arctic became a prism through which I saw the rest of the world, the first signs of climate change and the implications of human ‘forcing’ of our climatic system, that has become implicit in all the exhibitions and live shows I've done recently. I’m still a photographer though, not a campaigner. Is it possible to make great photographs and make great environmentalism? I think I have to prioritise. Of course, if I can make great photographs that go on to support great environmentalism…

You seem to spend a lot of time on ships?

I added up the various trips on the back of an envelope one time and found that I've spent one complete year of my life on just one vessel (The Arctic Sunrise). Across eight vessels, the total sea time across my career to date, is around 2.5 years at sea. I never set out to be a sailor, it just sort of happened that way. The sea voyages led to good stories so I kept on going, working on the Arctic Ocean sea ice, it's still one of the best ways to get there. The Watchkeeper story came out of the endless time I spent on ships, waiting to get to a location for a story -I needed a story that I could build and add to on the way, about getting there.

Why the Arctic and Antarctica?

By chance I was selected for an assignment to Alaska in 2000. I was embedded living in a temporary camp on the sea ice off Prudhoe Bay, whilst there I felt incredibly at home in the cold and the space of this vast landscape. Twenty-five years on and after 30 expeditions now, this feeling is still with me; I still love working in the polar regions. Something about the space and how harsh the conditions can get, how brutal the weather can be there. My heart is very much still in the Arctic, but I still like to work on some other stories too. I’m putting together a book (or books) about different aspects of the Arctic terrain, which is going to take a lot of my time, so the Arctic theme is intensive for now. They’re so different. The Arctic is a group of separate countries facing a frozen (or not so frozen!) ocean at the centre. The Antarctic is a continent land mass surrounded by ocean. What is happening in the two places is somewhat different too. You could say that what is happening (and going to take place) in the Arctic over the next few years, is so massive that it deserves a focus of its own. There’s a feeling that comes from working there, that you owe it that singular focus.

Are you a photojournalist, documentary photographer, or artist?

I trained at art college and then became a black and white printer, later I worked for daily newspapers and magazines as a news photographer. So now I draw on all these skills to make my stories, I'm grateful for the diversity of that training. What matters is that I turn out an authentic piece of communication, that tells an identifiable story. I’ll consciously stray across these boundaries if I can get away with it. I think it's becoming easier to mix styles; digital publishing and social media are breaking down the silos that previously existed in photography.

Do you still work on film -are you completely digital?

I used to make pictures daily on black & white film, but these days I use black & white only for ‘family’ and for notebook pictures. I never imagined that colour would become so central, because I found it harder to work with initially, really hard. Now I actively choose colour over black & white. I want to use black & white again for a story, so before it was discontinued I hoarded a stack of Kodak Tri-X in my fridge. When I make coffee those yellow boxes next to the milk tell me I must go out and do it soon.

Early on in my career, producing news stories from the Arctic Sunrise, I’d process colour negative film in a tiny darkroom at the bottom of the ship. Trying to get temperatures right as the ship heaved and rolled in severe weather, then drying the film to meet news deadlines, all the while managing the sea-sickness above the smell of the chemicals. Digital technology did save us that ritual; there was perhaps a sigh of relief when it came. Now I like to go back to film when I can, as it reinforces the craft aspect. Alex Webb said recently: “I dislike the intangibility” of digital media, which strikes a chord. But in the area that I work in, digital cameras are so useful, enabling me to work quickly in the unstable places like helicopters, ships and small boats. As digital cameras have become more advanced another advantage emerged, that we can shoot in ever dimmer conditions. For a photographer who likes to explore marginal light that new option can be very exciting. The advent of the digital age meant I never had to spend that queasy half hour amongst chemicals, in the dark at the bottom of a rolling ship, ever ever again!