- Interview with Lynn Schooler about The Blue Bear
- Gaia Symphony Documentary series (Japanese production).
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Michio Hoshino (星野 道夫, Hoshino Michio, September 27, 1952 – August 8, 1996) was a Japanese-born nature photographer. He originally hailed from Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture.[1] Considered one of the most accomplished nature photographers of his era[2] and compared to Ansel Adams,[3] Hoshino specialized in photographing Alaskan wildlife until he was killed by a brown bear while on assignment in Kurilskoye Lake, Russia in 1996.[4] Lynn Schooler's book The Blue Bear relates the story of the author's friendship with Hoshino, a man he admired greatly for his skill as a photographer and his humanity. Schooler is a wilderness guide who became a photographer in his own right under Hoshino's tutelage.[5] Another book, The Only Kayak by Kim Heacox, describes Hoshino's journeys to Glacier Bay as well as his own close personal friendship with Hoshino.
A memorial totem pole was raised in Sitka, Alaska, on August 8, 2008 (the 12-year anniversary of Hoshino's death), in honor of his work. Relatives and witnesses from Japan, including his widow, Naoko, attended the ceremony.[2] Hoshino's wife and son survive him.[4]
Michio's interest in Alaska began at the age of 19, when he bought a photo book showing the village of Shishmaref. Wanting to see it for himself, he sent a letter to the village's mayor, who replied six months later inviting him to visit. The following summer, he spent three months there, taking photographs and helping to catch fish.
Hoshino died after being mauled by a brown bear in Kurile Lake on the Kamchatka Peninsula in eastern Russia in August 1996.[6]
A photo of a bear entering a tent previously identified on the Internet as the last photo that Michio Hoshino took before he was mauled to death by said bear is incorrect.[citation needed] The photo was entered into the Worth1000 photoshop competition, in which the theme was "hoax last photo taken before death".[citation needed]
