Gallery MontPhoto biennial grant 2016

Living on the edge – European brown bear in central Europe

AUTOR/S

Christine Sonvilla - Marc Graf - Robert Haasmann

FULL REPORT

Project Report "LIVING ON THE EDGE – European brown bears in Central Europe"

Project idea
In June 2015 three Austrian photographers, the nature conservation photography couple Marc Graf and Christine Sonvilla as well as their colleague Robert Haasmann launched the project "LIVING ON THE EDGE – European brown bears in Central Europe".
The stark difference between their home country Austria – where only a few brown bears occasionally roam the far south – and their southern neighbour Slovenia – which hosts a population of roughly 500 brown bears, prompted them to dig deeper and pose the following questions: "Why are there bears in one place in Central Europe whilst they are lacking in another? And is it possible for humans and big predators such as bears to coexist in densely populated Central Europe?"

How did they work?
In order to bring increased attention to the topic the team chose to put a focus on wideangle DSLR-phototrapping and photojournalistic aspects. The project was the first to produce high resolution DSLR-phototrapping images of brown bears in Central Europe. Marc explains why wideangle photography is a great tool to support conservation purposes: "Close-up views that involve the surrounding landscape and create an intimate connection with the animal are the biggest assets generated by phototrapping images." The results of these type of pictures can be stunning but it involves substantial effort to bring about the results. Certain photo ideas took more than a year to eventually work out. In the end the project team gathered a number of special wideangle insights into the life of brown bears in Central Europe. And some of these pictures – probably the most valuable ones – even tell the whole story, the story of coexistence between humans and brown bears.

Over the past two years they spent innumerous hours setting up and checking phototraps, waiting for bears in photography hides and stalking them in forests and on meadows, always hoping for those rare moments when it all comes together, the bear, the landscape, the light. They managed to catch memorable glimpses into the behaviour and life of bears, how they loved, battled, munched, caressed each other and figured it’s hard not to draw comparisons between humans and bears in terms of behaviour, there are simply too many similarities.

Since interactions with humans are a big issue the team did not rely on photographs and films of bears solely but also incorporated the people, portraying and conducting interviews with sheep-herders, hunters, bee-keepers, conservationists and other individuals from Austria and Slovenia, whose work and / or life overlaps with brown bears in order to generate a larger picture of how different Central European countries deal with big predators.

Conclusions
There are a number of reasons why big predators are present in one place and lacking in another but the ultimate, decisive reason can be summarized in a single word: tolerance.
Austria could host several hundred brown bears, says Austrian bear expert Jörg Rauer, however, he immediately adds: "Only, if we tolerate this".
Tolerance is the one crucial key component that is still missing in Austria. "We get along well without the bears, so why should we encourage them to return to Austria?", that’s a widespread Austrian attitude. Slovenia may not be the "Promised Land" in terms of brown bears – it’s never straight forward black and white – but THERE ARE brown bears and there definitely are means of coexistence and even though some Slovenians do not fancy the bears most accept and tolerate their big furry co-inhabitants. Tolerance is the cement, that enables a future for bears and people even in densely populated countries.

What does LIVING ON THE EDGE draw from this?
It is crucial to spread the message about brown bears, how they live and how coexistence can successfully be achieved. That’s why the team of LIVING ON THE EDGE will continue its work, present their photography, talk at live presentations, visit schools and go the extra mile to make sure that there’s a future for both brown bears, big predators and humans alike.