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Celebrating the Endangered Polar Bear

The first time Norbert Rosing set out to take photographs in the Arctic, his film froze and his camera stopped working. Since that trip more than 20 years ago, Rosing has more than perfected his technique. He has become widely recognized as the preeminent photographer of the polar regions, of its stunning vistas and of the creatures that call it home. The World of the Polar Bear (Firefly Books, September 2006, $45.00, hardcover), a book 18 years in the making, makes it immediately clear why his reputation is so well deserved.

A glance at the book’s charming, improbable cover photo provides just a hint of the pictorial wealth to be found inside. But The World of the Polar Bear is more than pictures. Rosing marries his extraordinary photographs with expert and evocative text, taking readers on an unforgettable journey into a foreign, sometimes forbidding, altogether spectacular world.

John A. Echave, senior editor of National Geographic Magazine writes of Rosing, “Through his sensitive photography we discover that those legendary vast spaces of the Arctic are full of wonder, drama and tenderness.” They are also full of excitement and danger — and all of that is captured here, as Rosing illuminates a habitat that includes Alaska, Canada, Siberia, Greenland and Norway.

The book begins in the spring, and follows the polar bears through the seasons as they mate, hunt, rear their cubs and journey across the ice. One sees, too, through the camera’s intimate eye, the animals that share the polar bear's environment, including seals, arctic foxes, walruses and muskoxen. And, as the Arctic environment is so very much a part of the polar bear’s world, there is also a section on northern sky phenomena such as sun dogs and the northern lights.

But it is the polar bear that is the star here, and the book is replete with anecdotes and insights about this intriguing creature that is at once a loving parent, a fierce predator and a natural jester. Rosing has captured his subjects in all of those guises—and more. Perhaps the most engaging pictures are those of mother bears at play with their cubs, resting with their cubs, carrying their cubs across the ice upon their backs. But there are others photos that are just as enticing — three bears looking for all the world as if they are at a club meeting; a bear family posing prettily, babes leaning on the mother as they gaze into the distance; a bear lying on his back and waving a snow tire in the air. In fact, if one didn’t know better, one would think these bears were deliberately posing for Rosing’s lens.
There is, however, more than frivolity here, more than beauty, more than tenderness between mother and cub. The world of the polar bear is a world that is seriously threatened by global warming, and that is perhaps the most important point this book makes. Sea ice on western Hudson Bay, for example, is now breaking up three weeks early than it did 30 years ago. That gives the bears three fewer weeks to hunt and build up fat before coming ashore, forcing them to fast longer and on diminished resources. If these trends continue, polar bear populations, already in decline in some places, may be seriously threatened. Anyone possessing a copy of this book will find that unthinkable.

“To capture a moment in the wild,” Rosing writes, “takes 1/250 of a second; to find the right place at the right time in the right light and with the right equipment can take weeks, even years.” It is our good fortune that he has had the passion, the fortitude and the talent to find that light, those times and those places—and to create this stunning book.

About the author:
Norbert Rosing is a frequent visitor to the coastal region of Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba, where he photographs polar bears. He has received many awards for his work and is a frequent contributor to National Geographic Magazine.

Learn more about Norbert Rosing here.

Title: The World of the Polar Bear
Author: written and photographed by Norbert Rosing
Specs: 204 pages, 11 ½ x 11 ½ , 175 color photographs, 4 color gatefolds, map, facts and figures, bibliography, index; $45.00 Plastic-laminated hardcover with jacket
ISBN-10: 1-55407-155-0
ISBN-13: 978-1-55407-155-5
Pub Date: September 2006


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