You're sitting in a cabin in Svalbard, the Norwegian Arctic archipelago that's one of the remotest places on Earth. An oil lamp glows on the wall. You look up, only to find a polar bear staring straight back at you through the open window.
Most of us would be terrified. But Canadian photographer, filmmaker and marine biologist Paul Nicklen got the shot. He later titled it Face to Face, and it's one of the standout images in Reverence: The Photography of Paul Nicklen, which opens at Iconic Images Gallery in London on November 12.
Nicklen has spent more than three decades photographing polar regions, the open ocean, and the animals that depend on them, often in extreme conditions.
The show brings together work from across his career. In Ice Waterfall (2014), meltwater pours in dozens of cascades from the edge of a vast ice cap in Svalbard into the sea. In A Mother’s Universe (2023), a polar bear and her two cubs huddle together in the snow in Manitoba, Canada, all three looking directly at the camera.
In Commitment (2011), an emperor penguin bows its head over its fluffy chick in Antarctica’s Ross Sea. In Majesty Surfacing (2012), a grizzly bear wades through a river in Yukon, water streaming from its fur. And in Husky Huddle (2015), a pack of sled dogs in Greenland gather around the camera, some curious, some apparently ready for a nap.
He doesn't only go to cold places, though. The exhibition also includes Legend (2015), a dramatic portrait of a “super tusker” elephant that was shot from ground level in Kenya and puts the viewer directly in his path.
Nicklen was raised among the Inuit on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, and his work combines awe for nature with a consistent conservation message.
“Few photographers have gone so far, or so close, to capture a planet that is disappearing before our eyes, and fewer still bring such a sense of urgency to that awe,” says Carrie Kania, creative director of Iconic Images.
“These photographs are a record of our world as it is now, and they’ll matter more with each generation that follows.”
The exhibition coincides with the release of a 360-page book, also called Reverence, published by Hemeria. Three years in the making, it brings together a hundred-and-sixty photographs, including previously unseen work, and is the most comprehensive collection of Nicklen’s photography to date.
Signed copies are available at the gallery. Every photograph in the show is a limited edition print, signed and numbered by Nicklen, and all are for sale.
“For decades, I have travelled to the most remote corners of our planet, trying to capture the beauty, fragility, and resilience of the natural world,” says Nicklen. “Photography has always been my way of connecting people to places and species they may never have the opportunity to experience themselves.”
Reverence: The Photography of Paul Nicklen runs from November 12 2026 to January 02 2027 at Iconic Images Gallery Piccadilly, 16 Waterloo Place, St James’s, London SW1Y 4AR. It’s open Monday to Saturday, from 11:00 to 19:00, and entry is free.
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