Amos Nachoum is committed to capturing wildlife behavior, and fearlessly pursues the likes of whales, sharks and his latest conquest to fulfill his dream – the arctic polar bear. In a film called Picture of His Life, Amos, a world-renowned photographer who has twice been named Wildlife photographer of the year, and a team ready to document his journey set out for five days in the Arctic. With directors Yonatan Nir and Dani Menken, and filmmaker Adam Ravetch, the small crew set out to capture the elusive, and sometimes people-eating polar bear.
The film premiered this summer at the Tel Aviv International Documentary Festival and then showed at the San Francisco Jewish Festival. The film attests to the journey of Amos’s life, and shares his deep connection with the wild environment from his lens, committed to living on the edge, and capture the pictures that no other photographer is willing, or able, to do. He believes that most photographers are too aggressive when it comes to photographing wildlife, and says that calmness is everything when it comes to seeing success.
It makes sense. To date, humans are the top destroyers of planet earth, impacting how animals can survive in their natural environments. In Nachoum’s work, he has witnessed the environmental problems caused by humans on wildlife, and uses his platform to raise awareness on the importance of preserving our environment, even co-founding Israel’s Marine National Park on the Red Sea. He says the polar bear was his final conquest, yet he is still dedicated to capturing wildlife in action. “If nothing else, at least the next generation will see how beautiful these creatures were.”
