Steve Winter
Out of the Shadows

Friday, November 6
Max Bell Auditorium
$30 for the daytime program

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Patience is a necessity when it comes to capturing one of the world’s most elusive animals. National Geographic photographer Steve Winter spent ten months in Ladakh’s Hemis High Altitude National Park waiting and plotting an encounter with the rare snow leopard. The key to his award-winning photographs was a set of camera traps that the leopards could trigger themselves. Winter’s snow leopard portraits are remarkable, scientifically significant as well as aesthetically beautiful. They appeared in the June, 2008 issue of National Geographic, and Winter went on to win the Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award last year, and first prize in the ‘Nature Stories’ category in the World Press Photo awards.

Winter has years of experience tracking and photographing some of the planet’s rarest predators – grizzlies in Kamchatka, tigers in Myanmar, jaguars in Belize. His wildlife photography complements a portfolio of images that capture cultures and societies around the world. Originally from rural Indiana, Winter has been travelling and photographing for National Geographic since 1991. “I feel we have a great responsibility to show and excite the readers about the natural world and its fascinating people and culture,” he says about the job. “But to give people a reason to care.”

Passionate about taking readers and photography fans behind the scenes at his intense shoots, Winter adds that part of his mission with the magazine is to give people a “front-row seat” at what he calls the best job in the world.

A graduate of San Francisco’s Academy of Art, Winter started his career as a photojournalist for Black Star Agency. He has published work in magazines including National Geographic, Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Natural History, Audubon, and Scientific American, and has contributed photography for non-profits including UNICEF and the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation. He is an advisor with Panthera: Partners in Wild Cat Conservation.

More on Steve’s expedition to India to photograph the elusive snow leopard can be found at The Huffington Post.

More on Steve’s photo career.

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Photo Credit: Snow Leopard © Steve Winter