Interview with Fritz Mueller

After working as a biologist in the Yukon for 16 years, Fritz Mueller gave it up for adventure as a professional photographer. Yet, he's still pursuing many of the stories that interested him as a scientist "I've just changed the tools I use to explore them," he says. Now an expert in aerial photography, Mueller has flown over Dubai, L.A. and Alberta's tar sands to document the ravages of oil consumption. His dogged effort to shoot from a fresh angle has landed his work in The Globe and Mail, Up Here and various books.

		PHOTOGRAPHER Fritz Mueller A commitment to capturing fresh aerial angles led Mueller take up paragliding. In 2005 and 2006, this dedication won him accolades from the Nature's Best International Photography Awards See more from his Kluane Lake Research Station shoot in the January/February 2010 issue of Canadian Geographic. Or, to view and learn more about Mueller's work, visit: www.fritzmueller.com/index.html.
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Q You have an unusual connection to the Kluane Lake Research Station in the Yukon. Did the shoot have special meaning for you?

A Some of my best friendships started there. I first went in 1987 as an undergraduate biology student and was only there an hour before I realized I'd fallen in love with the place. So this assignment was very personal.

I could see myself in the students working there today and their enthusiasm for science, for adventure, for Kluane and the North. My wife Teresa wrote the story, so we took the whole family along.

Q Does your background in biology influence your photography?

A I've always dreamed of living the National Geographic explorer life, and for about five years I worked at being both a photographer and a biologist.

I agonized over the decision to give up biology. But many of the stories I was interested in as a biologist still interest me as a photographer. I've just changed the tools I use to explore them.

Q Does that apply to your photographs of Dubai and L.A.?

A Exactly! My Dubai and L.A. shots are both part of a story that I'm working on about oil consumption and its impact on the landscape. If you want to describe oil consumption, it's writ large in both of those places.

L.A. is built on oil. It's got all this traffic and there are massive abandoned oilfields just outside the city in Bakersfield. In parts of Dubai the landscape looks like a set from Mad Max built with money from oil. It's a bizarre place, like Las Vegas on steroids, but it makes for great shots. Often the visual impact of a photograph has to be extreme so that it registers with viewers, because they've seen so much.

Q Were you surprised by recent news of Dubai's $100-billion debt?

A When you're on the ground there you can't help but wonder if it's just a house of cards. Although it's not only a story about these crazy buildings built on huge debt. A lot of the migrant workers there are slaves.

It's just excessive. When I was there someone paid $15-million for the license plate #1, since the lower the number on your license plate, the more important you are.

Q Is there a reason you shot the Dubai and L.A stories from the air?

A Some stories can only be told by getting into the air. A good example is the Alberta tar sands. If you only work with what you see from the ground, you'd guess there's not much going on. It's only when you get up high that you realize the vast scale and impact of all of the open pit mining.

As a photographer you're also always looking for a fresh angle on the story. So getting into the air helps you capture an uncommon perspective.

Q Have you ever taken any risks to get a good aerial shot?

A When I read about National Geographic photographer George Steinmetz, who was one of the first to use a powered paraglider (a gasoline motor on a backpack attached to a fabric wing) for aerial photography, I decided I could do the same. So I bought one and took some flying lessons.

I had high hopes, some near misses and eventually I realized it was just too much for me to fly this thing and take good photographs. Carrying 27 to 31 kilograms of motor and camera equipment on my back was killing my knees during landings too. Eventually I admitted flying this way scared the crap out of me. Now I prefer to let the pros take care of it.

Interview by Graham Lanktree