Kirsten Hines started out as a wildlife biologist, but pretty early on found herself drawn to telling stories with images and words about the natural world, rather than collecting data about it.
After grad school she went on a wander around New Zealand, Australia, Southeast Asia, China and the Bahamas, and before departing was gifted her first camera by her fellow students and from that moment forward found herself looking at the world on another level.
Her photographs and writings have since appeared in numerous exhibitions and publications, including eight books — the latest of which is “Wild Florida: An Animal Odyssey.”
It features more than 200 of her photographs, alongside her personal stories about how she got the images, and interesting natural history insights.
It’s like a conversational field guide that explores ecological concepts like the “why” behind Florida’s animal diversity, and its blending of critters from the tropics with those from North America.
This conversation originally aired on Nov. 14, 2023. Since then, “Wild Florida: An Animal Odyssey” won a Gold Medal in Visual Arts for the Florida Book Awards, and First Place in the National League of American Pen Women’s Nonfiction Book Award category. You can listen to Kirsten's Three Song Stories episode here.
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