Named Canadian Photographer of the Year in 2021, Jean-Simon Bégin has followed the Leaf River caribou herd in Nunavik since 2015. It has lost 76% of its animals in 23 years.
Nunavik58° N−76%
Images: Jean-Simon Bégin.
Jean-Simon Bégin is a wildlife photographer and painter based in Quebec City. In 2021, Canadian Geographic named him Canadian Photographer of the Year, for images brought back from two expeditions to Nunavik. In 2025, he won the terrestrial wildlife category of the same competition, with a lynx. He has published three books, “Contemplation,” “Contemplation, seconde rêverie” and “Solstice.”
Since 2015, he has been going back to Nunavik to follow the Leaf River caribou herd. He guides photo trips there for Leaf River Lodge, an outfitter founded in 1989 on the riverbank, reached by Twin Otter from Kuujjuaq.
A migratory caribou travels 2,000 to 6,000 kilometres a year. The neighbouring herd, the George River herd, numbered more than 823,000 animals in 1993. In 2024, about 8,600 were left (Government of Quebec).
It took him years to photograph a polar bear. Two weeks without seeing anything, then eleven days on the George River where the weather allowed him only three flights, then a week by boat from the village of Tasiujaq. He drew this lesson from it: “The North taught me to accept coming back without the image I came for.”
The polar bear has been designated vulnerable in Quebec since 2009 (Government of Quebec). Tasiujaq, at the far end of Leaf Bay, has 420 residents and tides that regularly exceed fifteen metres.
“Boeufs Musqués, Nunavik” (muskoxen), February 3, 2023. Video by Jean-Simon Bégin.
Under this video, he wrote lines that talk about insulation without seeming to.
“They seem to come from another era. From an icy time when the wind was the only melody in the whole world. They are a group, a family, a clan. They huddle together to protect their young. They warm each other as a single being.”Jean-Simon Bégin, on the muskoxen of Nunavik
Nunavik's muskoxen descend from fifteen young animals captured on Ellesmere Island in 1967 and raised near Kuujjuaq. Between 1973 and 1983, 54 animals were released around Kuujjuaq and Tasiujaq. Today there are more than 10,000 (Government of Quebec).
Their underwool, qiviut, is about five centimetres thick. Milkweed silk does the same thing with still air, in plant form.
Before one trip to Nunavik, Bégin took along our milkweed neck warmer.
“I fell in love. Comfortable, warm, dry… it has become an essential part of my gear.”Jean-Simon Bégin, wildlife photographer
His images are on his website, and the rest of what we make for winter is here.
Jean-Simon Bégin's photo journal
A few images from his work. The rest is on his website, and in his films.
Jean-Simon Bégin
Wildlife photographer and painterHe has been going back to Nunavik since 2015 to follow the Leaf River caribou herd, and he guides photo trips there for an Indigenous outfitter during the fall migration. It took him years to photograph a polar bear, and he drew a lesson from it: accept coming back without the image you came for.
Government of Quebec, fact sheets on the migratory caribou, the muskox and the polar bear. Canadian Geographic, 2021 and 2025 photography competitions.
Images: Jean-Simon Bégin. Quotes: the description of his February 3, 2023 video and our October 21, 2025 post, translated from French.
What they wore
Pieces insulated with milkweed silk, a hollow fibre that holds still air.
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