Photos courtesy of Steve Winter
Tiger cubs playing at a waterhole in Bandhavgarh National Park.
The McCoy Center is proud to present big cat photographer Steve Winter for the National Geographic Live series on April 13. “On the Trail of Big Cats” is an adventure you won't want to miss.
“What I Want To Be When I Grow Up…”
Steve Winter grew up outside of Fort Wane, Indiana, poring over National Geographic and Life Magazine, admiring the images displayed on their glossy pages. So it wasn't surprising when he got his first camera at age 7 and decided he was going to be a National Geographic photographer.
“Part of my inspiration was Charles Moore’s civil rights pictures in Life Magazine,” Winter says. “Which is funny, because I eventually ended up working with and for him.”
He had the motivation, the creativity and the talent. He, however, had no idea what wild subjects he would encounter through his lens.
Winter began his career as a photojournalist for The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) capturing pictures of the different cultures and children he encountered on his travels. It was around that time that National Geographic took notice and wanted him on board.
Photo courtesy of Sharon Guynup
Into The Jungle
Winter had never seriously worked with wildlife before until an assignment came across his desk that would take him deep into the jungle.
“The first thing I said was ‘Hey – I’ve never been to the rainforest!’” Winter says laughing.
So he and his wife picked up and off they went on an adventure that changed their lives.
“Suddenly instead of business shoots and doing things just to pay for the bills, I was working with passionate, motivated scientists,” Winter says. “That made a huge difference.”
It was during that story, chronicling the behind-the-scenes of the pharmaceutical industry, that he got to witness marine turtles coming ashore onto the beach to lay their eggs.
“It really changed things because I took photos that no one had ever really gotten before,” Winter says. “Then I started doing wildlife stories and proposed my own.”
An Unexpected Visitor
Soon after, Winters was visited by a certain large cat that would lead him to the nickname The Big Cat Guy. One night, he heard an alarming noise right outside the door of his lodging. His concern stemmed from the fact that some loggers around the area weren’t pleased that naturalists wanted to protect the environment and stop habitat destruction, so Winter thought the noise on his porch might be an angry confrontation coming at him.
“I heard scratching and sniffing at my door and immediately grabbed my walkie talkie to phone for help,” Winter says. “They laughed at me and told me not to worry – that it was just a black panther.”
Shortly after, Winter created the first jaguar-focused story National Geographic ever published.
He pitched the idea when coming across an issue that wildlife ranchers in the area were stressed about. Their cows – a main source of income to feed and support their families - were dying, and jaguars were being blamed. Ranchers would immediately jump to kill any jaguar they saw and in turn, took a devastating toll on the big cat's population size within the area.
“I remember saying that the only way to convince these ranchers to stop killing jaguars is to prove that the wild cats aren’t the ones at fault,” Winter says.
So the project received funding for satellite collars to track where the cats were at all times. Upon further research, data revealed that only 1 percent of cattle deaths were attributed to jaguars.
“The ranchers completely changed,” Winter says. “Now nobody would ever kill a jaguar, and that’s because of the work that was done and the pictures I published.”
Each cow is worth around $2,000 in its lifetime, whereas each jaguar in the area now brings in $108,000 a year in ecotourism income. The economic drive is no longer just cattle, it’s mainly ecotourism and environmentally-friendly motivation. The cats that once struck fear into the area’s core now supports life there.
Not Just Pretty Pictures
Upon the success of that story, Winter began implementing the message of environmental protection within all his work.
“Why would you spend so much time working on a story if you knew the species you were working with was going to disappear because of a problem?” Winter says. “The bottom line was to start saving these cats – not just showing pretty pictures.”
Winters shot a project right in the middle of Hollywood, a place people would never expect a wild cat to be. When you think of Hollywood, you may imagine crowded streets, movie stars and big flashing lights. But just beyond that are spanning mountains that belong to wildlife. Because Winter focused his attention on that area, a plan to build the world’s largest wildlife overpass is now underway.
Steve Winter ©2011 Steve Winter
Steve Winter / Tigers
MM766 Tigers in Bandhavgarh Natl Park India
How Can I Help?
Most of us don’t come in contact with these amazing, wild cats, so it can feel like our ability to help is just a desperate reach beyond our fingertips. But perhaps change can happen no matter how far away you are from these wild cats.
“People ask me what organizations they should give to, and I can tell you some,” Winter says. “But I would first say that the best way to help is to get everyone to just respect this round ball we all live on.”
Winter says social media is one of the biggest influences on change happening around the world. As insignificant as clicks and likes may appear on-screen, the awareness spanning across these networks is essential to real change. Even conservationists are utilizing pop stars and media personalities to make announcements and PSAs about endangered species.
Getting people to care is one of the ways we can participate from our very own homes. It’s key that people understand our world is not only a habitat for these wild endangered animals, but for us too. As simple as that thought sounds, many people don’t think about how poorly we’re treating our only source of water and oxygen.
“You never think about where it comes from – every breath you take,” Winter says. “It comes from the ocean and the forests. We just don’t think about it.”
National Geographic has over 104 million followers on Instagram (Winter points out that the number is just shy of Taylor Swift’s) and has great success on all platforms of social media. This growing following isn’t simply a ribbon of popularity, but proof that people are really beginning to care about the planet.
Winter has seen big cats firsthand. He’s had to look into their eyes and confront the responsibility we carry - to preserve their home and species. While most of us will never be able to meet that gaze, we can be reminded through Winter’s life work.
“We need to start with respect for the planet,” Winter says with passion. “If we can save the homes of big cats, then we can save ourselves.”
About National Geographic Live
National Geographic Live is a touring speaker series, allowing explorers and adventurers of all kinds the stage to tell their stories.
The McCoy Center is proud to host Winter for the series on April 13.
“It’s an incredible evening and the series brings people that you wouldn’t normally see,” Winter says. “You can experience these stories about this amazing world we live in.”
Where: McCoy Community Center for the Arts (100 W. Dublin-Granville Rd., New Albany)
When: Saturday, April 13, at 7 pm.
Tickets: Tickets are $31.50 and can be purchased in-person at the CAPA Ticket Center (39 E. State St.), online at www.capa.com, or by phone at (614) 469-0939 or (800) 745-3000.
Mallory Arnold is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at marnold@cityscenemediagroup.com.
