
Editor’s note: This post was published in conjunction with a live webinar led by Roie Galitz. It was modified slightly after the webinar to remain relevant to our blog readers.
Award-winning wildlife photographer and Greenpeace ambassador Roie Galitz has been exploring our planet’s most remote places, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, over the past decade. He is capturing endangered animals in their natural habitats and harnessing the power of photography to raise awareness on pressing environmental issues. His work has been exhibited and published worldwide (BBC, NatGeo), and he is engaging in public speaking around the globe (TEDx Ireland, Finland & Scotland, the UK Photography Show). He is founder and CEO of the Galitz School of Photography and Phototeva Photo Travel.
Galitz took time from his busy schedule to answer a few of our questions about his work and his special NANPA presentation.

What attracted a photographer from Israel to extreme locations like the Arctic or Antarctic?
Coming from a small and mostly desert country, I always felt the pressure of the environment: water is valuable, desertification is a real thing and human-nature relations are always tense and usually on the expense of nature. But also, living in a place so warm made me curious on the places that are mostly cold and alien for me. So the Arctic and the Antarctic are perfect combinations – both are very cold, alien like and also both are deserts. So it’s like home, but also the opposite of it. I fell in love instantly.
The description of the webinar say that you are ” capturing endangered animals in their natural habitats and harnessing the power of photography to raise awareness on pressing environmental issues.” Can you give one short example where one of your photographs made a difference in how people think about or appreciate wildlife?
One of the images I’d like to address is the “Apex Predator” image, where a mother polar bear is hunting a ringed seal. This images has won many awards, and also been featured in countless magazines and presented in natural history museums. That image and others like it, raise the arctic on the public conversation and show the way the polar bears struggle to make it in today’s changing climate.

Has there been an unexpected success, where a photo you didn’t think would resonate actually caught on and affected people? What did you learn from it?
There are many surprises, one is the image called “Wildlife Photograbear.” I took this image as a polar bear approached our cameras and we had to get out of its way. I didn’t think it will go viral actually. I’ve learned that sometimes it isn’t the images we’re super proud in terms of photography who make it through, but it’s the images the public likes that do.
What would you say to NANPA members considering registering for this webinar presentation?
First, I think you learn every day and from everything. This webinar will present my point of view on wildlife photography and my own “secrets” on the concept of “how to create a great image.” So you’re welcome to join in and let’s talk some wildlife!
The 2019-2020 NANPA webinar series is sponsored by Tamron.