“I’m inspired by great photography. I strive to create images to move people. Move people emotionally and move people to act.” Photojournalist and conservationist, Peter Mather, doesn’t just want to capture the perfect image. He wants to paint a picture with his photographs, to tell the story of an animal or a place and raise environmental awareness. We spoke to Peter to hear about his story, “In Pursuit”, to understand more about the expedition he undertook to photograph the migration of the Porcupine caribou in a habitat that is becoming increasingly under threat.
Your photography is very rooted in ideas of conservation and animal welfare. What sparked your focus in this? And how do you think your photographs send a message about conservation issues?
Nature and conservation have always been areas that have inspired me as a photographer but I started focussing on it seriously about three years ago, when I moved into full time, professional photography. I think I will always be a conservation photographer, because it’s what gives me purpose in photography – capturing these unique images of wildlife and telling their story through them.
On this expedition, you were after a unique photograph of the caribou migration in northern Canada. What caused you to initially be interested in the caribou and their migration?
I grew up in the Yukon and spent a lot of time on the land with my father. Growing up in the Yukon, everyone hears about the caribou. They are larger than life. Anyone who has seen the thousands of caribou moving together, never forgets it – it’s an unbelievable spectacle. So I’d heard many stories about them that really built my interest.
Why is the migration of the caribou so unique? And can you explain in more detail the photograph that you’ve set out to capture?
The Porcupine caribou herd is thought to have the longest mammal migration on the planet. The image I wanted to capture is hard to describe, but while doing research on the caribou, I saw videos of them migrating in long lines of thousands. It reminded me of images of the Klondike Gold Rush a hundred years ago, where there was a line of four hundred men following a trail straight up the mountain. I wanted to recreate this image, but with caribou. I wanted the image to be intimate, so it was important to have the lead caribou be very close to the camera. I was looking for caribou trails going up a mountain, where I could set up the camera trap so it would photograph the lead animal, but you would see a line of caribou leading down the mountain and across the valley floor to give you a sense of the sheer number of caribou and the teamwork that the employ when moving in winter.
Human interference is a problem that you’ve mentioned affects the caribou’s natural migration ground. What are your views on the problem and how it can be solved?
The main human interference is in the calving and nursing grounds of the caribou, which is in Alaska’s ANWR. This is where the caribou are most vulnerable because they are very sensitive to any human disturbance when their young are first born. This small area has been opened by the Trump Administration to industrial development – thousands of helicopters, roads, pipelines and pump stations. This could devastate the herd and is something that I’ve been working on preventing along with the the Gwich’in for decades. The Gwich’in are caribou people. Their subsistence lifestyle and culture are tied to the herd, so they can lose everything if the herd is decimated by this development. For the Gwich’in, this is a human rights issue, because a threat to the caribou is a threat their health and culture.
Unfortunately, you weren’t successful in getting the photo that you wanted on this particular expedition. Did you find that disappointment hard to deal with? What drives you to keep going, to keep trying to get the shot you want?
I didn’t find the disappointment hard to deal with – it’s simply part of the process. I know that I may spend a month chasing a perfect caribou photo on skis and not get it, but that I may be driving down some remote road a month later and get the best caribou photo of all time. It is all part of the process and things always work out in the end. All you can do is put the work in. The caribou are wild animals and part of that means they’re unpredictable. I didn’t get the shot that I specifically wanted but I got some incredible shots of them in their habitat, which for me is also a success.
Do you have any advice for young photographers who are just getting started and are looking to find their niche and style?
It is important to just go out and find your own stories and passion and just photograph it to death. It is the only way to learn. Simply go and do it. If you are passionate, you will have success and you might even be able to make an impact and incite change at the same time.
What are your hopes for the future, in terms of the caribou and their habitat?
I want the 200,000 strong Porcupine caribou herd to carry on migrating through these lands, just as they always have. I want it to stay the way it is, when I’m 100, when I’m gone and for another 5,000 years.
To read more about Peter’s expedition to photograph the Porcupine caribou, click here.