Life of Extremes: The Life and Times of a Polar Filmmaker

by Max Quinn

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.

272 pages, Hardcover

Published March 9, 2021

Reviews

[Carmel Audsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first thing you notice when starting to read this book, is that the author has dedicated it to his grandchildren, so they know ‘what grandad did’. It was as a small child that Max Quinn got his first taste of snow, a rare sight in Benneydale New Zealand. Seeing the work of Antarctic film pioneers while attending a film club at school, set him on the path to filming in some of the most desolate places on earth. He takes us to the Antarctic, where temperatures plunge to minus 50 degrees Celsius “so cold that a cup of boiling water thrown into the air instantly snap-freezes into hail”. Readers are privileged to experience what life is like behind the camera, with few creature comforts and limited social interaction, as the filmmaker spends months at a time on the ice capturing stunning images of nature and wildlife. In 1991, Quinn and his sound man, Don Anderson, braved blizzards and below freezing temperatures to be the first people to film Emperor penguin chicks hatching, and the male birds transferring the chicks to the females after balancing the eggs on their feet for 60 days. He had the privilege of playing with polar bear cubs while their mother was sedated, given a health check and studied by a research team. Quinn filmed nuclear submarine Hawkbill as it surfaced through the Arctic sea ice. He travelled miles, sometimes in darkness, over crevassed ice, and battled to keep bodies and camera equipment warm in the coldest climates on earth. The book is a personal account of living on the edge, full of wild stories and stunning images of his adventures in polar climates.

[Lesley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have this book sitting on my coffee table and pick it up from time to time to read another chapter and look at the stunning pictures .New Zealand born Max Quinn has shared his remarkable life as a filmmaker and takes the reader with him as he journeys to remote areas in Antarctica and the Arctic
This hard backed book is a treasure trove of history as well as extreme adventure and stunning photographs . Lovers of outdoor pursuits will enjoy Max Quinn's writing in which he explains many of the challenges he faced filming in the extreme cold . His descriptive writing captivated me and I could feel the energy he was putting in to producing the natural histories documentaries from around the globe, and Quinn sums up his life as a polar filmmaker "My life of extremes had been a great ride"

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cold and pretty! An interesting spin on cold books - how to film in those environments especially in a pre-digital age. I was particularly fascinated by the chapter on Oymyakon - the coldest city on earth. I'd never heard of that or the Road of Bones that lead to it. Now if I could just watch all these documentaries that Max Quinn worked on...