Sue is a professional and award-winning wildlife photographer, filmmaker and author, who spent 11 years with the world-renowned BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol. She fulfilled a lifelong ambition to work with her childhood (and adulthood!) hero, Sir David Attenborough on a number of series including The Blue Planet and Planet Earth. She also produced a number of wildlife documentaries for the BBC including Polar Bears on Thin Ice, A Boy Among Polar Bears, and Killer Whale. She left the BBC in 2005 to concentrate on her photography full-time.
When Sue was at school, she was inspired by her wonderful Biology teacher, Dr Bradbeer, as well as David Attenborough’s wildlife documentaries. She decided that her dream career would be to work as a wildlife filmmaker and pursued this dream when she left Queen’s by progressing to read Zoology at Durham University, qualifying as a dive instructor, and working for the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service in Australia.
Having worked in the polar regions since 1996, it was natural that her first book, Cold Places, featured some of her favourite images from the Arctic and Antarctic. Cold Places was the inspiration for her first solo exhibition at the Getty Gallery. Her second book, Emperor-the Perfect Penguin was published in September 2018 with a foreword by Sir Michael Palin. She loves working in the Arctic and Antarctic and in 2021 was camping with emperor penguins in the Weddell Sea.
Sue is passionate about the use of still and moving images to engage people’s interest in the natural world. She regularly lectures on her experiences of wildlife film-making and photography to expedition travel companies, corporate organisations, as well as schools and universities, with the aim of inspiring people to protect the planet.
Recognition of Sue’s work includes awards in the following competitions: Travel Photographer of the Year, International Photographer of the Year, International Garden Photographer of the Year, the Art Wolfe (Best of Festival) Award in the International Conservation Photography Awards and Royal Photographic Society Silver Medal. Her work has featured in National Geographic, BBC Wildlife and the numerous other magazines. She was the winner of the Science Photographer of the Year Climate Change prize in 2021.
Sue is a member of the Explorers' Club and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Her career highlight was to be invited to meet Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2011 as a result of her photography.
She lives in North Wales with her husband Chris.