A Life of Extremes

Filming in the world’s most extreme environments requires more than just a steady hand. In temperatures as low as -50 degrees, your body shuts down and your equipment freezes up. But it’s worth it to witness and record the stunning beauty and epic struggle of life on the edge. Since 1991 when he spent 11 months filming the wildlife of Antarctica, Max Quinn has been the go-to filmmaker for documentaries such as Expedition Antarctica (2010), Hunting the Ice Whale (2013) and South America’s Weirdest (2019). A Life of Extremes tells the stories and shares the stunning images from Quinn’s 20 years of adventures in polar climates. Be it travelling 80 kilometres over crevassed ice to a lonely colony of Emperor penguins, or figuring out how to keep cameras warm in the coldest places on earth, Max Quinn has a story to tell about it. Natural history fans will be enthralled by the rich and layered stories, while film buffs will marvel at techniques required to keep the camera rolling when pushed to the absolute limit of endurance. Become inspired to leave the tourist trail behind with this unique book about what life is like behind the camera, beyond public transport and even human habitation. Learn about dog sled racing, the last great ice age, penguin colonies, and everything else that happens in the immensely beautiful landscapes where the temperature is permanently below freezing.

About the Author :
Max Quinn is a wildlife filmmaker with over 50 years of experience in television production. He has filmed in areas from Antarctica to Mexico; Taiwan to Tibet, for broadcasters such as Discovery Channel and National Geographic. Now ‘retired’, he continues to do freelance projects around the globe.

Review :
'This is quite an amazing book, showing the hardship, danger and excitement of filming in extreme weather conditions. As well as the scientific aspects of the films, the author has a real interest in and knowledge of the polar wildlife, and many different species feature throughout the book. It is well illustrated in colour photographs, with the pictures alone almost being able to tell the story. I can heartily recommend this book.’ 'Quinn is an effective storyteller and succeeds in highlighting a range of experiences that moves the book well past what could easily have been “we came, we saw, we got cold”.' "A great book that inspires and shows the endurance and energy one person must have to do the thing they love most even when the risks are high… the rewards were priceless." "His up- close experience of the Arctic and Antarctica also meant Max was early to the climate change story, addressing it years before An Inconvenient Truth woke the world up, sort of" 'A Life of Extremes is a personal memoir of Max’s travel and polar filmmaking encounters with wildlife in these remote locations. Whether it be travelling eighty kilometres over ice to a lonely colony of emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsterior) or being surrounded by minke whales (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) frolicking in pools of open water, Max has a story to tell about it.' “An inherently fascinating and impressively informative read about an unusual life lived out under unusual circumstances, A Life of Extremes: The Life and Times of a Polar Filmmaker is especially and unreservedly recommended for community, college, and university library American Biography and American Cinematography collections.”