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Life Onboard |
LAST UPDATE
July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| February 28, 2004 |
The Environment through a Camera Lens – Koichi Fujiwara |
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| Koichi Fujiwara |
Often the broad effects of human-induced global phenomena in nature go unnoticed by people in their everyday lives. Ironically, these changes that affect all living things are observed most clearly in the earth’s remote corners. Koichi Fujiwara is a marine biologist and a photographer who has spent much of his professional life in some of these faraway places. He has seen firsthand the way many creatures are greatly affected by these changes of which most of us are at best dimly aware. His scientific background, coupled with his photographer’s eye, has allowed him to recognize and capture these and countless other fascinating images, which are showcased in the books he has published, including The Antarctic Ocean and The Encyclopedia of Spheniscidae.
Mr. Fujiwara met up with Peace Boat in Buenos Aires, and accompanied a group of participants on a separate study voyage from Ushuaia to the Antarctic Peninsula. On the journey, he assumed the role of lecturer and guide to Antarctic environment and wildlife, sharing his vast knowledge of the world’s largest and coldest continent.
On Peace Boat itself, Mr. Fujiwara gave three lectures drawn from his experiences. The first lecture, entitled Galapagos: The Final Days of the Iguana, treated viewers to a collection of photos from his time in the Galapagos Islands. Many of the photos showed examples of the influence of both human contact and global warming on the islands’ fragile ecosystem. One grim photo showed hundreds of discarded tortoise shells – remnants of a time when sailors indiscriminately slaughtered Galapagos tortoises for their meat.
Mr. Fujiwara’s second presentation focused on Antarctica, incorporating images from both the Antarctic voyage he’d joined and from his countless other visits to the Antarctic continent. He treated viewers to spectacular scenes that accompany life on Antarctica’s research bases, Emperor Penguin rookeries, and time-lapse shots of the aurora australis – Antarctica’s southern lights. Curiously, among the photos were some very un-Antartic-looking patches of green. Mr. Fujiwara explained that these were recent growths of lichen that had sprung up due to rising temperatures in the south.
The World from a Photographer’s Point of View, a collection of photography from around the world was the subject of Mr. Fujiwara’s final lecture, introducing images from sweaty South Pacific jungles to Svalbard Island’s frozen bays. While looking at the islands, rainforests, and vast ice-scapes, he touched on the threats posed to the wildlife in each of these regions, from the rising sea level that is beginning to submerge some of Hawaii’s remote islands to deforestation that is threatening orangutans in Borneo. His talk even ventured into the Arctic Circle, pointing out how the concentration of smog and man-made fertilizers in the North Pole has drifted up from the south, affecting the animals there.
Mr. Fujiwara expresses a deep appreciation and concern for the threatened beauty of the subjects of his work – a common thread that runs through all of his lectures. He hopes to raise people’s awareness to the fragility of these creatures through his images, and to remind them that within our lifetimes a time may come where they only exist as that – photos. |
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