Guest Photographers | Jürgen & Stella Freund
Jürgen Freund is a natural history and conservation photographer living in Tropical North Queensland, Australia. He is as much at home taking photographs underwater in the oceans, as he is in fresh water, rainforests, deserts, and up in the air. He is a senior fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers — an elite group of the world’s top wildlife, nature and culture photographers who, in addition to displaying remarkable photographic skills, have demonstrated a deep commitment to conservation efforts around the globe. Ongoing for more than two decades, his images are used extensively by WWF, the World Wide Fund for Nature, for marine conservation. Jürgen is a well-published, internationally acclaimed photographer who has won many of the world’s top nature awards: 9X UK’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year where he was part of the 2019 distinguished panel of judges; the World Press Photo Awards in the Netherlands; the US Nature’s Best to name a few. He teaches photography through workshops and frequently presents his work in public to national and international audiences. He has presented at the Royal Geographic Society in London and was keynote speaker for WildSpeak in Washington DC.
Stella Freund, is a photo story producer and documentary filmmaker with a long list of books and films to her credit. She is the producer who works behind the scenes and lines the shots for Jürgen in all their photography work. On an epic assignment for the World Wide Fund for Nature, Jürgen and Stella embarked on a milestone photographic expedition traveling non-stop for 18-months through six Asia-Pacific countries of the Coral Triangle. They photographed nature, wildlife, and the many people living in the world’s most bio-diverse marine ecosystems. Their visually rich voyage culminated in a hefty tome “The Coral Triangle”, produced and written by Stella, published by the Asian Development Bank and WWF.