About Thorsten

Thorsten Milse was born on August 11, 1965 in Bielefeld, Germany.

He is spending many months of the year as a naturephotographer in some of the last known or visited confines of the planet. He came to photography from the technical side, being a graphics designer by training. About 15 years ago he began to specialize in landscape and wildlife photography with a strong focus on conservation. His main topics are endangered species: the last large, charismatic animals on earth.

For four years now he has been returning regularly to the polar regions of the globe, often spending weeks in the field in order to capture the truely impressive feats of survival. He strains to take pictures that reveal how these animal champions have mastered the art of adapting to those forbidding environments. But as he observed these polar athletes raising their young against all odds, as he admired and marvelled at their feats he has begun to realize that the very environment to which they have retreated, to which they are dynamically adapted is changing from year to year and thus endangering the very livelyhood on which they have subsisted for so long.
Taking pictures of wildlife in these regions thus is for him no longer only an artistic challenge, but also a personal and prefessional commitment. He strives to bring back images and first-hand experiences that will impress and inspire people around the world to care for those marvellous animals that share the planet with them and to act in their interest. He has heard with relief that recent international conservation jurisdiction is expected to improve the survival prospects of the polar bears.

Since around 1990 he has worked on a variety of wildlife topics – from Cheetahs, Lions and Leopards in Africa to Kangaroos and Koalas in Australia, from Tigers in India and Emperor penguins in Antarctica to Walrus and Polar bears in the Arctic. Some of his more challenging projects have been published in 25 countries in some of the world´s most prestigious nature magazines including GEO, BBC Wildlife, Illustreret Videnskab and Nature’s Best among others.

He has published wildlife books, calenders, postcards. His pictures have been awarded several international prizes including BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year in the category animal behaviour and Grand Prize Winner at Nature’s Best Photo Competition.

A recent book project of him celebrates one of the closest bonds among animals on the earth: the one between mother and offspring, between a Polar bear mum and her cubs. His efforts were supported by the Wapusk National Park and their biologists, enabling me to capture the activity in this third largest polar bear denning area of the world and to bring back intimate, touching images to which the general public can relate emotionally. The book is called „Little Polar Bears“. (German title: „Kleine Eisbären“)

These pictures speak for themselves and communicate to every feeling human being, what childhood means. With this book he hopes to ignite concern and empathy for wild animals and inspire people to conserve the most vulnerable regions of the natural world.

The resonance to this enterprise has persuaded him to launch a new project, a book that focuses on six different species and the loving care they lavish on their young.
Together with a GEO writer Uta Henschel and in cooperation with GEO he puplished the book „Growing up Wild“. (German title: „Tierkinder der Wildnis“) in July 2007.
For this complex behavioural topic he is currently visiting remote habitats of the world: the Indian Jungle for Tiger cubs, Kangaroo Island for „Joey’s“, Namibia for Cheetah cubs, Rwanda for Mountain Gorilla babies and, of course, the poles. Polar Bear cubs in the Arctic and Emperor Penguin colonies are among those that are beginning to suffer sorely from global warming. The chicks are bogged down by ice-free, melting soil and water puddles, the humidity and warmth endangering their health.

His coverage of these populations will be made available to scientific bodies such as the Alfred Wegener-Institute with which he is cooperating. Their current research results will be reflected in his upcoming publication. He is also contributing the photographic documentation and observation of recent years spent in the Arctic and in Antarctica to the research efforts of the upcoming International Polar Year. He hopes that his images will enhance the scientific message that we need to move globally in order to save endagered wildlife locally.

For more info, please visit his other website wildlifephotography.de