Adam Lau 2009 Commended
© Adam Lau
© Adam Lau
© Adam Lau
© Adam Lau
© Adam Lau
© Adam Lau
© Adam Lau
© Adam Lau
© Adam Lau
© Adam Lau
© Adam Lau
© Adam Lau
‘Whale Warriors’
Sea Shepherd – a radical spin-off of environmental group Greenpeace – embarks on its 2008-2009 campaign to stop Japanese whaling in Antarctica’s Southern Ocean. These self-styled, modern-day ‘eco-pirates’ assert the Japanese fleet’s whaling activities are commercial, flouting international law under a veil of ‘scientific research’. While claiming non-violence, Sea Shepherd’s aggressive tactics have provoked criticism from other environmental groups, making them the black sheep of the conservation movement. Annual clashes at the bottom of the world may grow increasingly violent unless an international solution on whaling can be reached.
About the Photographer
Trained a marine biologist, Adam Lau’s storytelling passions run between environmental science and Pacific Rim politics. He earned a B.S. in Marine Biology & Psychobiology from University of California, Los Angeles in 2003, before jumping ship in 2008 to study photojournalism at San Francisco State University.
Since then, his work has appeared in print and online publications worldwide since. His work has been recognized by POYi, NPPA, CPOY, PDN, Luceo, and the Eddie Adams Workshop, among others. Adam currently works as a staff photojournalist for The Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, while pursuing his own environmental documentary projects.