Touch the Arctic: Churchill Wild – New coffee table book by Dennis Fast!

Longtime Churchill Wild guide, photographer and professional photo leader Dennis Fast has published a beautiful new 12 x 11 coffee-table book filled with glossy images of polar bears, beluga whales, seascapes, icescapes, landscapes, northern lights, caribou, wolves, foxes, polar bear cubs, Arctic birds and more.

Covering all four seasons in the Arctic and annotated with lyrical prose under each photo that is written from personal experience, Touch the Arctic: Churchill Wild also features a specially-designed 3D embossed polar bear on the cover, which makes it a real collector’s item! And we’re proud to say that the bulk of the photos were taken at Churchill Wild’s remote polar bear lodges: Seal River Heritage Lodge, Nanuk Polar Bear Lodge and Dymond Lake EcoLodge, on the Hudson Bay Coast.

Polar Bear in Fireweed — Dennis Fast photo

Touch the Arctic: Churchill Wild is a culmination of Dennis’s numerous trips to areas around Hudson Bay. He continues to travel northward on a regular basis in search of  soul-soothing photographs, and from Nov. 10-16, 2014 he will be back again as the Photo Leader for the Polar Bear Photo Safari. He offers special thanks in the book to Churchill Wild, for allowing him to lead trips to our various lodges, and describes his time spent there walking with polar bears as an unforgettable experience. He also thanks Heartland Publishing for their encouragement and advice; Donovan Bergman and Aron Friesen at Friesens in Altona for their logistical support and printing advice; and Freda Fast, his human spell checker. Dennis also expressed gratitude to Bergdis Sigurðardóttir, whose artistic sense and design skills turned the book into a work of art.

Polar Bear at Dymond Lake EcoLodge — Dennis Fast photo

The new book will soon be available in McNally Robinson Booksellers in Winnipeg, and will also be for sale at Churchill Wild and our remote lodges. Dennis will also be at the McNally Robinson Booksellers Grant Park store in Winnipeg for a special book signing on Saturday, December, 13.

“It’s the best of 21 years worth of photographs,” says Dennis. “Every photo tells a story.”

From the back cover of Touch the Arctic: Churchill Wild:

Polar bears and their habitat are rapidly becoming a cause for global concern. Less summer ice in the Arctic, and shorter winters, means the traditional patterns of wildlife in the North are being altered.

A result of all this is that a galvanizing spotlight has been cast on the Arctic and its inhabitants. Quite apart from the problems associated with changing weather patterns, however, the North remains a spectacular place.

The general rhythms of the season that have gone on for millennia continue unabated. Residents and visitors alike feel the vastness of the Arctic and its open skies in their pores. From there it sinks into their souls.

If you have never had the opportunity to see the North for yourself, Touch the Arctic: Churchill Wild will take you there. Perhaps it will be all you need; more likely, it will make you want to see the amazing landscapes and wildlife for yourself.

At the very least it should inspire you to a greater awareness of the fragility, not only of the Arctic, but of our planet. We are the keepers of the earth — touch it and be changed.

Touch the Arctic: Churchill Wild — Back Cover

About Dennis Fast:

Dennis Fast is one of Manitoba’s best known wildlife and nature photographers. His photographs have appeared in numerous calendars and books, including the award-winning best seller Pelicans to Polar Bears, a Manitoba wildlife viewing guide.

He has been a major contributor to 10 books. Wapusk: White Bear of the North, which was published by Heartland Associates, featured his work exclusively and became a Canadian best seller.

Dennis’s polar bear images are featured in the new polar bear rehabilitation centre at Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park Zoo and on the interpretive signs at the new polar bear exhibit “Journey to Churchill.” Dennis also recently published Princess, a children’s story picture book about baby polar bears. Dennis is a frequent presenter at photo conferences and other events across Canada.