The WILD Project

Nature has always been an incredibly large part of my life and has colored most of my choices. For me nature has a magnetic effect on my soul that I can not ignore. For the past many years I have been traveling around the world, photographing what I love in the search for true adventure and for that special peace...

I believe that all people have a connection with nature. It starts in childhood and then we gradually looses it as we get older if we are not exposed to nature trough our upbringing. Sometimes it comes back to us when we are older and we start searching for the link that we lost at an earlier stage. Some people takes up hiking, others rafting or birdwatching. There are so many things we can do to reconnect with nature but for most it remains a missing piece in the puzzle of life.

With the Wild project I want to create imagery that makes us question our connection with nature and challenges our perception of beauty in a way that will hopefully lead us to think about the way we are dealing with nature today. For most people nature is something that we see exhibited in magazines and in museums. When we look at the images we think about the beauty and how fantastic it would be to see it with our own eyes. After a few seconds, most of us, will have forgotten about it and we have returned to our everyday life. As a conservation photographer I know that we can challenge that and produce imagery that will linger and hopefully make us take some steps to protect what we see.

The WILD Project will seek to revive our feelings towards nature and to reconnect us with what we are. To me, there is no difference between us and nature. We ARE nature and instead of running away we should seek to become WILD again.

I will make sure to post stories and photos from the project here on my blog and stay tuned for the first story which I shot for NUDE Magazine in Copenhagen. The story behind the shoot and some preview photos will be up sometime next week.

A tale from the Volcano in Iceland

Over the past few months I have been working together with Gitzo and Manfrotto and have started collaborating with them as a tutor and contributor to the Manfrotto School of Xcellence. There I will be writng articles and blogs on my photography and will try to give a real insight on what it is like to work in the field for a nature photographer.

My first story is on the work I did at the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in the Filmvordurhals area. I spend three days there photgraphing the first eruption and you can read the story here: http://manfrottoschoolofxcellence.com/2010/06/22/uri-golman-a-tale-from-the-land-of-fire-and-ice/

I will make sure to let you know as soon as there are any new stories up on the site.

Snow – Finally…

The last couple of weeks have been busy to say the least… I have been working on getting the whole Arctic Fox Project (AFP) up and running. It has been a lot of writing, emailing and phone talking. The project is growing bigger and bigger and I am constantly in contact with other photographers, biologists, researchers, editors and possible supporters. What started out as a small idea is now growing in size and starting to make sense? The whole idea of the project is to raise awareness about some important issues happening up north. But more on that in my next post…

Meanwhile I have got some great news – I have been in contact with Canon and National Geographic Nordic and both have agreed to support the project. National geographic Nordic will be the project main Media Partner and Canon will be Image Partner. I am really happy that two such great partners have joined in the efforts of telling this important story.

But while all this has been happening, there has been no snow on Iceland. The place I am going is close to the Arctic Circle and let me say it again… “THERE HAS BEEN NO SNOW” Incredible, what is happening? Down south here in Denmark we have had more snow than for decades and temperatures have plummeted way below zero. Some people have even started debating the reality of global warming. But way up north in Iceland, Greenland and Canada, the winter has been warmer than ever. In the Disko Bay area snow conditions has been so poor that it has not been possible to go out with the dogsledge and we are talking about a place 400 km north of the Arctic Circle. My friend even joked about going on winter holiday to Denmark.
But then yesterday I got an email from Ester at the Arctic Fox Centre. They had just had a snowstorm for some days and now the whole landscape is covered in beautiful white snow. So now I hope that it will last until end march so that I can go to photograph the foxes in a proper winter landscape. So, I for one do not hope for an early spring. At least not in Iceland…

Back to the Arctic

Hello everybody,

Sorry about the waiting time, i guess i will have to pick up on my blogging skills ;o)

I am now finishing up my project on conservation in India and what an exiting project that has been. Especially my last trip to Kaziranga was incredible and i got some amazing shots of Rhino and Elephant. I am now planning my last trip to get some more and i will be writing some more about that later on...

Being in India has been an incredible experience and the fact that i actually saw and photographed wildlife each day has been a nice change after many years spent tracking down elusive animals in the cold. The warm weather, the good food and the colors has given me a creative kick but also made me realize that i miss the far north. The loneliness, the cold breeze and all the gearing up before an expedition into the wild has been drawing in me all the time. The Arctic bug has bitten me and i will have to admit to some kind of addiction with the place, the people, the wildlife and the really wild nature. OK - Call me crazy but the Arctic is where i feel at home, what can i do about that?

So here is some news that have just got out today. I have just been named Official Photographer for The Arctic Fox Center in Sudavik in Iceland. The AFC and I has made an agreement on a new project for 2010 and 2011 which means that i will be spending A LOT of time in the north photographing and documenting the life of the Arctic Fox. You can read more about the news here: http://melrakki.is/news/An_official_photographer_of_the_Arctic_Fox_Centre/

So back to the Arctic (Subarctic really) it is. I can not wait to start the project and i am all ready checking up on my winter gear. I even picked up my daughter from kindergarten on my telemark skis and dragged her all the way home on her plastic sledge to get some practice. What an expedition that was :o) and now i can only sit in my chair writing on my laptop because of my sore legs. Surely i will have to work on my physical condition and burn away some of that good indian food, before venturing back into the cold.

I will keep you posted as soon as there is news.