| |
 |
| Photo by Steve Winter/National Geographic magazine |
| Steve Winter pauses for a self-portrait while shooting jaguars in the Pantanal in Brazil. Click photo for a gallery of Winter's recent images. |
The photographic community is incredibly diverse, made up of photographers who shoot from the sky to the sea and everywhere in between. Each month we look at a different segment of the industry, interviewing top professional photographers about life, their careers, and what sets their piece of the photographic industry apart from the rest.
This month we focus on Steve Winter, 52, a contributing photographer at National Geographic magazine since 1991. Focusing on conservation photography, Winter's subjects have included volcanoes in Iceland, grizzly bears in Russia, and the natural history of Cuba. The New Jersey-based photographer recently traveled to India, documenting snow leopards for his most recent National Geographic article. While on a layover in Delhi, India, Winter took some time to share a glimpse of his life after spending three months photographing in the field.
Q. What led to your career at National Geographic? I read that, as a child, you aspired to travel the world as a photographer for National Geographic; did you ever consider that to be an attainable goal?
I remember as a child looking at the National Geographic magazines we had in my home south of Fort Wayne, Indiana. They took me to places far away from Midwest cornfields. I was totally fascinated by the cultures that I discovered on those pages. And when I was young, I was obsessed with wildlife shows: I remember getting all choked up even hearing the intro music before a National Geographic TV show.
I wanted to be a National Geographic photographer since I was eight years old. My parents always led me to believe that I could accomplish anything I set my mind to, and I took that to heart. I felt I could realize my dream. One of the things I try to impart to students during lectures is that dreams are not just something you experience at night while sleeping: they are your lifeblood -- focus, be passionate and don't give up.
Upon graduating from the Academy of Art in San Francisco, one of my photographic idols, Michael "Nick" Nichols, offered me a job as his assistant -- then my education really began -- also a long-term friendship that has made a large impact on my career.
I got my shot at doing my first story for National Geographic magazine partly because I had been working for National Geographic World magazine and doing short pieces for the "front of the book" for National Geographic magazine. To work for National Geographic magazine, I showed my portfolio to the Deputy Director of Photography Susan A. Smith (to whom I owe so much) and the then the Director of Photography, Tom Kennedy. I proposed a story on the Quetzal and we worked out a deal where the first trip was a "prove you can do it trip." I was successful and learned so much about working in the field with biologists and the patience it takes shooting natural history. I then received a contract for the whole story and with the help on my photo editor, Kathy Moran, and so many others, my career at National Geographic magazine began.
Q. What projects have you worked on for National Geographic? Where have you traveled? Have you published recent work in other publications?
I first set foot into the rainforest in 1992. It was a life-changing experience. I had a corporate shoot in Costa Rica through my then-agency, Black Star. My job was to document the collaboration between Merck Pharmaceuticals and the National Biodiversity Institute (of Costa Rica) in their quest to find new medicinal compounds in tropical forests. As Merck's research director told me, "We ran out of ideas and had to move back to Mother Nature."
I went down with my family and remember walking into the forest for the first time one morning with my wife, Sharon Guynup. As the darkness enveloped us, we realized that we knew nothing about this world, where to see animals or how to be safe there. So we went back to the research facility and talked to the scientists who knew the forest like their own backyard, and spent the next days out with them.
I was completely awed. That experience changed the direction of my work from social documentary to natural history and conservation. During that trip, Sharon, who is a writer and photographer, was doing seven stories for Science magazine. One of her subjects was Dr. George Powell, an ornithologist who was studying bellbirds and quetzals at the time. After I got home, he sent information on a great place in Guatemala to photograph quetzals. This became my first story for National Geographic magazine.
My earlier work focused on people and culture. When I was 20 years old, I circled the globe for eight months shooting pictures. I also spent a lot of time in Mexico, and lived for nine months in Haiti working on stories, including a piece on Mother Teresa's Home for the Sick and Dying, another on the slums surrounding Port-au-Prince, and covered the many coups that erupted during that period.
For National Geographic, I traveled to Iceland to photograph a volcano erupting from a glacier, shot the world's first wild jaguar story in locations from Arizona to Brazil, and did a story on the creation of the world's largest tiger reserve in Myanmar. I also produced stories on the grizzly bears of Kamchatka in the Russian Far East, Myanmar's Irrawaddy River, and the natural history of Cuba, which I like to call the Galapagos of the north. I tend to propose stories that have never been done before. I like the challenge and they are always full of adventure.
My last shoot for another publication was in 2000; since then, my magazine work has been exclusively for National Geographic.
Q. Having worked for National Geographic since 1991, I'm sure you've racked up your fair share in travel expenses. What type of budget do you have to work on projects for the magazine? How long do you typically spend in the field? Has this changed in recent years?
Budgets vary from story to story. It depends on how remote the location is, what type of expedition travel is needed, and how elusive or difficult the subject is. Sometimes I use elephants for months at a time to carry all the gear and equipment -- which can be over 30 bags and cases. Other times we need horses, jeeps or porters. Elephants are a lot cheaper than jeeps! In Kamchatka, we had tens of thousands of dollars in helicopter transport fees because there are no roads across much of the peninsula. To cover that, we received a grant through the National Geographic Expeditions Council.
You need to be more creative on budgets nowadays, as things are getting tighter in all areas of print. But I always try to make sure I have enough expense money to cover both costs and contingencies. I need to bring back National Geographic-quality images no matter what, even if Mother Nature decides not to cooperate weather-wise or animals have moved from where they were in years past.
I usually spend three to five months shooting a story over at least two trips, with a midway show in between for the editors to help focus on what I still need. Sometimes I spend extra, unpaid time on a story to get the job done.
Q. How much of your time is spent shooting? What else is involved in making each assignment a success? Can anyone with financial backing handle spending weeks photographing tigers in the jungles of Myanmar?
When I'm in the field, I work seven days a week, usually from dawn to dark, sometimes with a break in the middle of the day when the light is bad. But before I'm out the door, I do extensive research from home. Since I don't have a background in science, I work closely with biologists to learn everything I can about the species I'm working on, its habitat and the survival issues it faces in the world. Without the knowledge, expertise and passion of the experts I work with, I cannot successfully produce these stories.
One of the first things we need to do after a story is approved by the editors is to obtain the permission and permits needed to work in the country or countries where we need to shoot. This can take months and sometimes requires a huge amount of bureaucratic wrangling to gain access to remote wild lands. Some places are impossible to work in without the assistance of a local "fixer". Sometimes you need diplomatic aid: I could not have produced my Irrawaddy River story without the gracious assistance of a then-Undersecretary General at the United Nations. Seven different times, government officials told me I had to return to Yangon (formerly Rangoon), the capital of Myanmar (formerly Burma), and couldn't continue shooting in the country, but with an email or phone call to the UN, I was allowed to proceed. Without National Geographic's clout and key government contacts, it would be impossible to shoot in some places.
Another important factor in producing these stories is packing -- both gear and photo equipment. When I'm in the field, it's often impossible to replace damaged equipment, so I must have backups for everything. I'm especially careful about backing up my digital files on at least three hard drives (my current story has a total of 1.5TB of photo files). But other gear can include anything from tents, mosquito nets, and a gas-powered generator to cold weather gear, antivenin for snakebites, or a machete to hack through the jungle. I also bring a serious medical kit on every assignment.
|
