The Kingdom of the Polar bear, Svalbard May 2022

– Sven Nordlund, Kalix

Since childhood, I have dreamed of experiencing the Arctic and polar bears. When the trip finally became a reality, I made sure to spend a few days in Longyearbyen before it was time to board the vessel. When exploring the surroundings there, you can mainly get close to Svalbard reindeer and Svalbard ptarmigan, and if you are lucky, you may even spot an Arctic fox near the settlement.

It was a wonderful group of different nationalities and ages who boarded the boat on the first of May for an eight-day photography expedition. Several participants had experienced the Arctic before, so there was plenty of shared experience, leading to many interesting stories around the dinner tables.

Adding to this, we had an outstanding expedition leader with enormous experience in the form of Staffan Widstrand, as well as two local guides with deep knowledge of the region, and an experienced captain who was able to assess ice conditions and navigate safely and skillfully—making the whole experience even better.

Ejder och praktejder fotograferad på Svalbard av Sven Nordlund på fotoresa med Wild Nature fotoresor.
I will shorten the account of the experiences on board the vessel—one could easily write an entire book about them. We encountered polar bears both at close range and from a distance, along the shoreline as well as out on the pack ice. We also saw many walruses and had excellent opportunities to photograph seals, including harp seals, bearded seals, ringed seals, and harbour seals.

Although it was early in the season, there were still several bird species to photograph: ivory gull, black-legged kittiwake, fulmar, Brünnich’s guillemot, common eider, and king eider are just some of the species we observed and photographed.

Simply experiencing the landscape is an immensely powerful experience in itself. We were fortunate with varied weather, ranging from dense snow showers to calm, windless mornings with sunshine. It becomes almost otherworldly when, early in the morning, you look out and see light veils of cloud drifting over the mountain peaks, while near-perfect reflections of the majestic mountains mirror themselves in a still sea.

Arktiskt landskap fotograferad på Svalbard av Sven Nordlund på fotoresa med Wild Nature fotoresor.

Alla bilder ©Sven Nordlund

For me, experiencing animals in their natural environment has always been more important than simply ticking off a species list. It is a form of happiness when, as here, around the 80th parallel north on northern Svalbard, you get to experience both walrus and polar bear out on the pack ice.

For me, the experience—with sub-zero temperatures biting at my cheeks, a light snowfall, the powerful landscape rendered almost in black and white with only a faint blue tone, and a polar bear passing by as close as one could ever hope for—felt as close to perfection as it gets.