Travel photography in the Arctic
Due to a client work commitment, I have just had a single place become available on my sold-out Svalbard expedition this July 2022. The expedition will run July 6th – July 15th, 2022 and is dedicated to the photography of Polar Bears. Full details on the expedition are on my website HERE including a detailed PDF for download. The available place is a private cabin with an ensuite. For more information please drop me an email. First in, best dressed!
Update: THIS PLACE HAS BEEN SOLD.
This November I will be the guest speaker at Photo Connect in Canberra and will be discussing Polar Wildlife and Landscape Photography. Due to the ongoing COVID situation the speaking event will be held via ZOOM. Please contact Canberra Photo Connect to register for the free event: mailto:canberraphotoconnect@gmail.com
The event is being held on Saturday November the 21st at 2:30pm.
Topic: Canberra Photoconnect presents Joshua Holko on Polar Photography
Time: Nov 21, 2020 02:30 PM Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney
The photograph of the month for September 2020 comes from one of my winter snow mobile expeditions to Svalbard to photograph Polar Bear on the frozen sea ice. This large male Polar Bear is at full speed on the ice at Monbukta as it chases after a nearby female. Capable of explosive bursts of speed covering around 100 metres in just seven seconds the Polar Bear is the only living marine mammal with powerful, large limbs and feet that allow them to cover kilometres on foot and run on land.
2020 has been a year unlike any we have experienced in our lifetime. Circumstances have forced us to change the way we work, play, behave and interact. One thing that has not changed, however, is our need for creative expression. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, both the AIPP Epson State Awards and the Australian Professional Photography Awards (APPA) were unfortunately cancelled. This was really unfortunate as they represent some of the very last print award competitions still running today. However, the AIPP Awards Committee saw this as an opportunity to do something special, to channel the challenges now facing us all into a communal outpouring of creative energy. As art critic and winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for criticism, Jerry Saltz, says, “Isolation favours art”. So, appropriately, the AIPP decided to ignore the clouds and focus on the silver lining.
The AIPP Silver Lining Awards aimed to do just that, with an online program incorporating image critiques and feedback sessions, judge training and a national competition culminating in a multi-state print exhibition. This new silver Lining Awards members-only program was been designed to engage as many AIPP members as possible – in a demonstration of members collective imagination and expertise.
I am delighted to announce today that of the five images I chose to enter into the Wild category of the Silver Lining Awards that all five of them made the semi-finals and have now moved onto the final round of judging. All the semi-finalist photographs can be seen online HERE. With almost 3000 entries into the Silver Lining Awards, the Semi-Finalists represent the top 10% of entries into the competition.
My planned expedition to the Russian Arctic and Wrangle Island next year (2021) has now been delayed until 2022 . This delay is an indirect result of the ongoing COVID-19 situation with all ship charters being pushed back.
The Wrangle Island expedition crosses the Arctic Circle and includes the isolated and pristine Wrangel and Herald Islands and a significant section of the wild North Eastern Siberian coastline. It is a journey only made possible in recent years by the thawing in the politics of the region and the retreat of summer pack ice in the Chukchi Sea. The very small distance between Russia and the USA along this border area was known as the Ice Curtain, behind which then and now lies one of the last great undiscovered wilderness areas in the world. The voyage journeys through the narrow Bering Strait, which separates Russia from the United States of America, and then travels west along the Chukotka coastline before crossing the De Long Strait to Wrangel Island. There we will spend four to five days photographing under the guidance of local rangers on the nature reserve. Untouched by glaciers during the last ice age, this island is a treasure trove of Arctic biodiversity and is perhaps best known for the multitude of Polar Bears that breed here. We hope to photograph this beautiful mammal in its native environment. The island also boasts the world’s largest population of Pacific Walrus and lies near major feeding grounds for the Gray Whales that migrate thousands of kilometres north from their breeding grounds in Baja, Mexico. Reindeer, Musk Ox and Snow Geese can normally be seen further inland. A visit to massive bird cliffs on nearby Herald Island is also planned. Full details are available on my website at www.jholko.com/workshops.
www.WILDNATUREPHOTOTRAVEL.com 