A Canadian photographer went looking for wildlife in the Arctic and came home with gold.
Michelle Valberg, an Ottawa photographer, won the gold medal in the wildlife category at this year’s World Photographic Cup in Iceland for a striking image of a mother polar bear and her cub in Greenland.
The winning photograph shows the two bears standing on dark volcanic rock in Scoresby Sound, a fjord system on Greenland’s east coast. The image captures a quiet moment that still feels loaded with instinct.
“They pause, noses lifted, catching the scent of another female who has wandered into their territory,” the World Photographic Cup’s website reads.
“The deep contrast between the bears’ white fur and the dark basalt creates a powerful visual tension, a story of survival, instinct, and tenderness unfolding against one of the most dramatic landscapes on Earth.”
The World Photographic Cup is an annual “Olympic-style” photo competition where teams of photographers represent their countries. This year, Valberg’s image did not only win its category. It also earned “Best in Nation” as Canada’s highest-scoring photo in the competition.
For Valberg, the honour carried extra weight.
“To represent Canada here means a great deal to me,” Valberg said in a statement. “That moment was real and quiet. A mother, her cub, and something just out of frame. You feel the awareness, the instinct. That’s what I look for.”
Valberg is no stranger to international recognition. She also won gold at the World Photographic Cup in 2022, the same year she was named a Member of the Order of Canada.
This time, her winning shot came down to a mother, a cub, and a frozen second on the rocks.
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