The Naked Eye Studios

In this Podcast, we talk to Steve Winter and Sharon Guynup. Steve is an award-winning National Geographic wildlife photojournalist best known for his photography of big cats such as snow leopards, cougars and jaguars. For the past two decades but his main focus has been tigers. Sharon is an award-winning journalist and editor covering wildlife, climate change, conservation and more, writing for titles such as National Geographic, The New York Times and The Washington Post. Together they have done in-depth investigations into wildlife crime, including an exposé on tiger trafficking and how captive tigers in the U.S. outnumber those in the wild and the issues surrounding this. They spent time with individuals covered by the Netflix series Tiger King, detailing in-depth the issues surrounding the tiger entertainment industry. In our hour-long chat, we talk about how they started their careers, and how they create opportunities where they can work together but also that have an impact and cause change. They share details on how Steve got his now-iconic image of a cougar under the Hollywood Sign which was instrumental in creating a $88 million dollar USD privately funded wildlife corridor. They discuss the value of a single jaguar through ecotourism in The Pantanal as a result of Steve's early images taken in the region and the importance of giving back. They also talk about all things tigers, a species on which their combined efforts have been focused for a number of years, including their in-depth investigation into the tiger industry in the United States.

From a chance meeting in a bar in the far Arctic North, Will talks to Sergei Chernikov, a 30-year-old Russian living in Svalbard. From Moscow to Longyearbyen, Sergei speaks openly about why people shouldn't speak about nationality, but instead should look to his new word of "valuenality" to change perceptions and avoid stereotyping people based on where they are from. Their conversation also includes insights into life in Svalbard, including the political difficulties of Barentsburg, is the second-largest settlement in Svalbard, Norway with about 455 inhabitants, almost entirely made up of ethnic Russians and Ukrainians. On the complicated and too often political world we live in, Sergi wanted to add, " I’d love to talk more and feel sad it was so briefly, especially about what’s happening in Russia now. It’s really a horrible and terrifying situation for me to see so many people just stuck in propaganda without any attempts to have a critical way of thinking and blindly supporting the evil or those saying they are “just living their lives”. It’s a huge crisis of the nation and I don’t see how it could be solved."

In our fourth episode, Will Bolsover sits down for a chat with the one and only Andy Mann! Marine photographer, conservationist, founding member of Sea Legacy, family man and shark guru! Sitting down in Andy’s studio in Boulder, Colorado, we chat family, travel, conservation and interesting socks!

In our third episode, we sit down with Martin Hartley. Polar explorer and photographer, Martin has spent the last 16 years documenting the polar regions. During this time, he has covered cumulatively over 2,000 miles skiing, living for 400 days on the sea ice, including a mammoth 99-day crossing of the ocean from Russia to Canada across the top of the planet. Several of these endeavours have focused on collecting data to help scientists better understand our planet. Time magazine has acknowledged Martin’s contribution to science with its prestigious Hero of the Environment award for his research work on multiple surveys of the frozen Arctic Ocean. This laid back chat talks us through the modern world of photography and exploration, how to do things differently, covid and the climate crisis and more. Enjoy.

A chance meeting with the lovely Dr Laura Benjamin results in hotel quarantine buddies and some in-depth chats! Whilst this was now recorded a while back at the start of the omicron variant, the points are still valid and the conversation is still fresh. Dr Benjamin manages to bring a friendly smile to some complicated topics and including Covid, variants, how viruses can affect the Third World, and mulled wine on our 20min courtyard breaks from quarantine – socially distanced of course!

Have a listen…to the Naked Eye Studios Podcast…! With the first episode launched today, the Naked Eye Podcast dives into all things natural world, climate, philanthropy, farm to table, conservation, photography, and more! A platform - separate to NWS - for conscious discussion around the things that matter to us the most (and maybe shouldn’t) in the modern world. We will be bringing regular podcasts to this platform with the first one being with our very own Will, interviewed by journalist and writer Lisa Francesca Nand of the Big Travel Podcast!