Famous nature photographer Dmitry Kokh has returned from the North Pole with stunning images and a sombre warning; we are living in a world divided.
And in the competition between man and nature, it seems the polar bears are taking the hit.
After gaining international recognition in 2021 for his images of polar bears overtaking an abandoned Russian island, Kokh was invited to photograph a North Pole expedition cruise.
"Immediately, an image came to mind - the ideal shot - a polar bear standing next to an icebreaker in the middle of an endless snowy tundra," Kokh said.
After making the 2400km journey on one of the world's most powerful nuclear-powered icebreakers (the kind that can glide through 3m-thick ice), Kokh found his shot.
After passing the large northern archipelago Franz Josef Land, the team spotted an ivory gull, which Kokh's expedition leader said always accompanied polar bears.
Sure enough, a mother and her three cubs soon came into view. Seemingly unfazed by the massive icebreaker, Kokh said the animals were easy to photograph.
"I used a drone to capture the moment, gradually letting the animals get used to the buzzing from afar so as to not startle them," he said.
While the cubs fell asleep in a ball, the mother wandered towards the ship and created the perfect photograph for Kokh to capture.
However, Kokh didn't just find picturesque scenes at the North Pole. He also found melting ice; a lot of it.
Of the 2400km journey, Kokh said 1000km of it was made through ice. But this may not always be the case in the future.
"The ice caps are melting and according to the worst forecasts, they may disappear completely in the second half of our century," Kokh said.
"This has many implications, the least of which is that there'll no longer be a need for such a ship."
Another implication involves the gorgeously fluffy creatures he came to photograph.
"Polar bears and man exist in two different worlds," said Kokh, who named his photographic series 'A Home Divided'.
"We wake up to our smartphone alarms, go to the office so that we can buy lunch, force ourselves to the gym to work off said lunch, and then go to the bar looking to forget the day at the bottom of a glass."
On the other hand, bears just live. "And in order to live," Kokh explained, "it does not need a Gucci bag or a TikTok feed."
The issue, according to the photographer, was how the cost of our lifestyle is being paid by nature.
"Progress is relentless and as we move up the technological ladder, we are melting ice, destroying forests, and devastating the oceans," he said.
"In the process, the two worlds, man and nature, continue to drift apart."
This division, Kokh said, was most evident on cruises to highly fragile places.
"We board this huge iron vessel with a capacity of 75k horsepower, with a luxury bar and a pool to explore 'the animal world', a place moving further and further away from us," he said.
If the current environmental damage continues, Kokh believes the outcome will be "catastrophic".
"I'm curious," Kokh asks, "what will it take to steer this ship around?"
