BIO

Adrian Steirn is a photographer and filmmaker whose passion and knowledge of wildlife has taken him across the globe. Australian born, Adrian has resided in Africa for the past decade since relocating to Cape Town. His work as a conservationist has seen him document rainforests from Brazil to Uganda, mountain ranges of Nepal to the Caucasus, the plains of the Serengeti and beyond. In his capacity as photographer-in-residence for WWF South Africa, Steirn has worked to promote and engage with wildlife conservation, using visual images as a means to stimulate discussion and action around key issues such as poaching.

By way of example, Steirn directed a short film, ‘Searching for Tiger’, which highlighted the threats to Nepal’s tiger population as part of a major WWF initiative. He also collaborated with WWF on its global campaign to protect Virunga National Park from the threat of drilling by oil companies. A third WWF campaign saw Steirn travel to the Amazon, where he created a documentary for Sky Television on the threat of deforestation and its impact on climate change, charting the drive locally to encourage local people to adopt rubber-tapping instead of logging as a form of sustainable employment.

2013 also saw the launch of 21 Icons South Africa, a multimedia celebration of men and women who have achieved at the pinnacle of their vocations while contributing to society in a positive way. The project was inspired by Nelson Mandela and featured the portraits and interviews of iconic South Africans including former President FW de Klerk, Nobel Laureate Nadine Gordimer and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu. It gained worldwide attention for the last photographic portrait of Nelson Mandela. The signed print was sold for a South African record ZAR2 million with all proceeds donated to charity. The 21 Icons project recently concluded with its third season flighting in South Africa.

In recent months Steirn has documented the rhino-poaching situation in Southern Africa, working with a number of conservation organisations to bring global attention to the crisis. His film documenting the story of Thandi, a rhino that survived an horrific poaching attack to later give birth to a healthy calf, achieved worldwide distribution, while photo essays on Hope, a second female who is being rehabilitated by specialist vets after a similar attack have achieved huge impact on social media. His photo essay ‘A Complicated War’, which shared Steirn’s personal reflections on the impact the crisis was having on the animals communities affected by poaching, won the Professional Social Cause category at the 2015 International Photographic Awards. Other current projects include a documentary charting the plight of the critically endangered Caucasian Leopard.

Through the course of his career, Steirn has won multiple awards, including being named Photographer of the Year at the Africa Photographic Awards and Nikon Africa’s Professional Photographer of the Year. His ability to understand and translate complex issues around conservation to a wide audience has led to Steirn being recognised as a thought leader in the field, with speaking engagements that include the inaugural Caucasus Cat Summit in Baku, Azerbaijan (2014), the IUCN World Parks Congress in Sydney, Australia (2014) and the World Leader’s Conservation Forum in Jeju, South Korea (2015).