Photographer aiming to raise awareness with subarctic experience

Among the more than 100 polar bears Shaun Antle saw while visiting Churchill, Man., it’s the first, he says, that stands out.

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The Corunna photographer said he was just beginning his nearly two-week stay in late October and early November in the subarctic community, to capture images and learn about what makes it tick.

He stepped outside on a protected deck at the Churchill Northern Studies Center where he was staying to get some air, and saw a “ginormous” bear maybe 12 meters away, he said.

“And I lost my mind.”

It was a dream fulfilled, he said, and a sobering lesson about the dangers of life in the community abundant with polar bears on the shores of Hudson Bay.

“You can’t leave the building unless you’ve got an armed, 12-gauge shotgun bear guard with you, because it’s a very real threat,” Antle said.

On another occasion, two, 450-kilogram bears stopped traffic to spar, he said.

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Antle, who received an honorable mention in Canadian Geographic’s 2023 Canadian photos of the year competition, said he doesn’t usually “spray and pray” when he’s shooting.

But for this trip, with the bears and other wildlife, northern lights, and the wildness of the area, its harshness and fragility, he stopped counting at 25,000 frames, he said.

“That’s been the dream,” he said of the photography bucket-list trip.

“To experience that, to capture that, and to learn about the history of that area.”

Antle, a financial advisor whose side business is Oh Me Nerves Photography, had bigger plans than just memory-making with his trip.

The local mental health awareness advocate said he’s trying to give back to Churchill, by using his experience to talk about ecosystems there, the impacts of climate change, the people who live there, and the importance of following dreams.

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He has talks planned in classrooms at Sir John Moore elementary school in Corunna, at libraries in Corunna, Wyoming, Alvinston and Thedford — one a month in that order, starting in January — and is lining up other ticketed events and talks with camera clubs to share his experiences and what he learned, he said.

Hopes are his images and his story help inspire others, while also helping people learn more about Churchill, he said, noting he’s working on a book about the experience, and is trying to raise donations for return trips to create a documentary, working with Petrolia’s Frameworks Media.

“Worst-case scenario, I’ve got a really awesome home video,” Antle said.

Best case, the film takes off and helps spread the word about Churchill life and ecology “to really point that light of awareness on saving the polar bears, climate action, and doing what we can for the north,” he said.

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Antle also is booked with nearly a half-dozen art galleries so far in different parts of Ontario to show images from his trip, he said.

He has a lecture at the Judith and Norman Alix Art Gallery in Sarnia booked Feb. 27, at 7 p.m.

Proceeds from things like a 2026 calendar in the works, featuring some of his photos, will go toward supporting science, research, conservation and Indigenous communities in the north, he said.

Fourteen local businesses fully funded his trip, he said, and the northern studies center that hosts researchers from around the world let him stay for free, he said.

“Because they partnered with me and believed in my own project” but also were updating their website, he said.

Antle said he helped out in the kitchen during his stay, and gave the center images and video to use.

The center also grows microgreens and has a subscription program for the local community, he said.

“It’s just a really, really cool place.”

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