aboutlouise

Louise is a photojournalist with a passion for natural history. She has worked worldwide for the last fourteen years from the Arctic to the equator. A self confessed polar nut, she spends much time plotting her next visit to the high north. A lover of the Arctic environment both above and below the water, she has travelled to the Svalbard area several times, to the rarely visited Franz Josef land in Russia, to northern Greenland, and extensively to Nunavut. She is very knowledgeable about the wildlife of this very special region and has experience of charging polar bears and over friendly walrus at one extreme, and the microscopic life in the polar oceans at the other. She writes on science and conservation for The Times, the Guardian, Geographical, BBC Wildlife and Focus amongst others and especially enjoys writing for children. See Times Online link for current biographical info.

Louise's features have been published internationally. Many focus on the marine environment, from the tropics to the polar regions, others involve extreme adventure travel or reflect Louise's intense interest in natural history and science. Louise has been a freelance journalist and photographer since 1992. This website focuses on recent work. Features are available for syndication in print media or electronically. Some features are syndicated by the Science Photo Library.

Louise's photography is sold around the world for editorial, advertising and graphic design purposes. She is available for commissions. A small portfolio of photography is kept updated on this site. Contact her on louiseATlouisemurray.com. THis is not an active link.

For information on either photography or features please email her directly. All material on this website is copyright Louise Murray, no unauthorised usage is permitted.

See also Simon Rogerson’s article about Louise’s work here

Interview with Louise European Press network © EPN

As a specialist in wildlife, environmental and marine stories, Louise Murray has had her share of scrapes with nature, red in tooth and claw.

Every story seems to have a perilous encounter attached: "I’ve woken up beside a deadly snake in Borneo, had orang-utans throwing branches the size of small trees at me and been the victim of attempted rape by a dugong in the Pacific," she told EPN World Reporter.

"Last December, while doing a story on the sex life of squid, a huge propeller missed me by about a metre, due to a misunderstanding between my boat’s skipper and the captain of the other boat. It came close to sucking me in and chopping me up into very small pieces. I’ve seen someone else die like that – it’s a horrible way to go."

You might be interested to learn that Louise took up freelancing to escape the high stress lifestyle of her previous job as a commodities trader. At least it means that her life is rarely boring.

"A boring assignment is rare, as I’m the one responsible for coming up with the ideas. I love the total freedom I have as a journalist. I can research my own ideas, develop stories, present them to editors and get commissioned to go off and do the job.

"I would struggle to come up with a boring assignment, but I can offer one piece of advice: avoid press trips at all costs. They are no way to see a country and its people and come up with a decent story. There is never enough time allowed."

Louise actually became a journalist after working as a professional photographer for a couple of years. Before her oil trading years in London, she trained as a microbiologist and botanist, and worked in the young plant biotechnology business, cloning plants.

Her first assignment would make many journalists envious: she worked on a Tobago travel guide for the Sunday Express, also managing to squeeze a report on the diving there into her stay: she is a contributing editor to Dive, Europe’s best-selling English language diving magazine.

Since then, she has reported from locations many desk bound journalists dream of: whale breeding in Madagascar, cowboys in Montana, hunting for the extremely rare Sumatran Rhino in the rainforest.

"We got lost in the rainforest while looking for the rhino. I overnighted on a small tarpaulin with four Malaysians, several thousand fire ants and leeches that grew to over 10 cm chock full of my blood. It was bloody cold too, as my turn to dry my clothes didn’t come until 2 am. Still, I was making a program for BBC Radio 4 and it made for great radio!"

"My line of work is all about working with experienced guides and doing as much research as is possible beforehand about the environment that you are going into.

"Being adequately prepared, and dressed for the job, is critical. I never go anywhere without rehydration salts. I add them to bottles of water to stave off dehydration, self-inflicted or otherwise. Also, I travel everywhere with a policeman’s notebook. They’re small and compact, and I attach a piece of gardener’s wire to the elastic and another end to the pen so I can’t lose it.